


100 words (hiatus)

by SenorCasillas



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-14 19:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 47
Words: 65,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3423071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SenorCasillas/pseuds/SenorCasillas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being the new kid in school is never easy</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> I'm using a 100 word challenge to write this, I'm also following the order, so the follow up on words will probably not make a lot of sense most of the time  
> I'm also a little rusty on writing so I'm sorry if the chapters are very short  
> Russian translation [here](https://ficbook.net/readfic/3184025) (not up to date)

James adjusted his shirt for the seventh time. He wasn’t nervous, he was but he would never admit it. He hated being the center of attention, and he hated it even more that, in a few minutes, he had to speak in front of 30 people. He shoved his hands in his pockets, then took them out again to cross his arms, only to hold them behind his back a few seconds later. He didn’t dare to look at anyone, so his gaze was focused on the back of the room, where a coloured world map was used to decorate the wall. He bit on his lip and tried to remember how many countries he knew the name of, when someone called out his name.  
  
“Mister Rodríguez? You can introduce yourself now” his teacher said.  
  
James let out a sigh and looked at his new classmates. “Uhm, my.. I’m James, Rodríguez, and.. I went to.. uhm.. I came here..” he bit his lip again “M-mom, she wanted me to.. to uhm, change school so I’m.. no.. here I am” he stuttered. His eyes went all over the room while he was talking, first at a girl, then to the ground, next up was the ceiling, someone’s table, back to the ground, and they ended at the map again. His hands were now in front of him, sweating from both him rubbing them together, and his nervousness. James cursed at himself for not being able to speak a single sentence without tripping over his own words, he was sure he had heard a few people chuckle already. He tried to casually wipe his hands off on his pants, but he ended up doing it more than once and by the time he realized how stupid he must’ve looked more people were whispering and giggling. James looked down and squeezed his eyes shut, praying that the teacher would finally let him escape this embarrassing situation.  
  
What James didn’t notice, was that there were two equally lonely kids like him in that classroom. Two lonely students who, at first, were only paying attention to whatever was on their desks, but who had looked up after his stuttering, hopeful that the new boy could help them get rid of their loneliness.


	2. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a few things I need to say, I hope I didn't forget them all  
> First of, I may be slow with updating this, I'll try to do it once a week but I can't promise anything  
> Second of, the school and school system is based on my own personal experience, as well as some other things (like how you have to be 18 to be able to drive a car), because that's how we roll in The Netherlands, so yeah if things may not seem right or just confusing, it's because they're different here, and I have no idea what they're like in America  
> And the last thing is that I will change the rating, and maybe even add characters or couples when I need to

James let out a deep sigh as he made his way to the cafeteria. The first three hours at his new school weren’t that bad, but he was just glad to have a break from the constant confusion. Changing schools was a lot more difficult than he thought, different books, different methods of teaching, different kind of students, different kind of teachers. Of course the basic stuff was still the same, but there also were a lot of different things.

The second reason James was happy with lunchtime, is because during the previous hour he came up with an ingenious plan. He walked to a corner of the big room, grabbed a chair and sat down at an empty table. He looked around himself for a bit, to see what his fellow students were up to, and to his relief they were all too busy, caught up in their own conversations with their friends to notice him. It made him a little less nervous. Wait, no, scratch that, he wasn’t nervous at all, he was never nervous. You see, James believed that if he admitted that he was nervous, he would actually be nervous. Plenty of people had told him that, if you just believe in certain things strong enough, they become reality. So he hoped that, if he never thought that he was nervous, he actually never would be nervous. Unfortunately for him, he knew deep down inside that he was nervous, and it made all his efforts to make himself believe that he was not worthless.

James grabbed his lunch box and opened it in front of him on the table. He looked inside and groaned as he rubbed his forehead. While he was worrying that morning about making sure he wouldn’t forget anything, he forgot to put a drink pack in his lunch box. He didn’t have a spare plastic bottle with him, and any of the beverages they sold at school were way too expensive, plus he didn’t bring any money with him. The only option left for him was to drink right from the tap in the toilets, but even the thought of it made him cringe. He would be able to survive the day without water, or so he hoped.

Once he took a few bites from his sandwich, which he luckily didn’t forget, he started his amazing plan. He scanned the entire cafeteria, looking for students who were on their own, so that he could maybe become friends with them. He realized that getting into a group of friends was way too difficult, and he could also forget about making any friends in his class, since pretty much everyone had already laughed at him for terribly messing up his little introduction speech. Lonely kids were the answer, because what lonely kid wouldn’t be happy with some company?

However, as time passed, James discovered that his awesome plan may not have been that awesome after all. Almost everyone had friends around them, and those few times he spotted a lonely person, it just turned out that their friends hadn’t shown up yet. He almost thought he spotted a potential friend, but after watching them for a while he realized that they were just really focused on something, and thus blocking out their friends for a little while so they wouldn’t get distracted. James started to wonder if maybe there was some spot around the school where all the lonely kids hung out, all together, so they seemed less lonely. Maybe he’d walk around during his next lunch break, to see if he could find this group. They wouldn’t be too hard to find right? Everyone would most likely have their backs to each other, all busy with their own things, not saying a word to anyone around them..

James got a little lost in his own thoughts, which actually happened quite often, until a group of people walked through the cafeteria, not far from where he was sitting. He watched them, feeling slightly jealous, as they were all talking and laughing to each other. One guy stuck out for him, his hair was perfectly styled, and so were his eyebrows. James wondered if he was born with those perfect eyebrows, or if they had a little help. He chuckled lightly at the thought, or was it the guy that made him chuckle? He quickly pushed those thoughts away and continued to study the boy.

He was wearing earrings, which was odd to James. He never really liked earrings that much, didn’t understand why people even liked them, but somehow they looked really good on the guy. One of his friends told the guy something funny, because his face lit up and he started laughing. James felt a weird sensation in his stomach, it didn’t hurt, it wasn’t a bad feeling either, it was kind of nice actually. He wondered if his sandwich caused it, but he had cheese sandwiches all the time and they never made his stomach feel weird like this. In fact, he was pretty sure this was the first time his stomach ever acted up like that, maybe he was getting sick? The guy had stopped laughing, and it made James feel a little sad. He liked watching the guy laugh, it was a nice laugh, it was a laugh he wouldn’t mind hearing for the rest of his life. By now James’ elbow was on the table, and his hand was supporting his head as he kept staring at the guy. He hadn’t taken a bite since his eyes found him, and he had completely forgotten that he was in a public area, and everyone could see what he was doing. He didn’t look away until the guy’s eyes found his, he almost knocked his lunch box off the table while changing into a less obvious staring position, cheeks red from embarrassment.

By the time James looked up again, the guy and his group of friends had disappeared. He tried looking for them, but soon the bell rang, signalling him to go to his next class. He put his lunch box away and stood up, completely confused as to what exactly just happened.


	3. Light

James liked Biology. He liked learning about all the different living creatures, he liked learning about how his body worked, he liked learning about how everything worked together and how nature was perfectly capable of keeping itself in harmony, he liked learning about how weird looking sea creatures eventually created all the animals of today, and what he liked the most about Biology was cutting organs open to see what’s on the inside. James was sure that no teacher could ever make him not like Biology, that’s how much he liked it.

Until he met his new Biology teacher.

The class immediately went quiet when the teacher walked into the room. No one dared to open his mouth, no one dared to make a sound, it was so quiet that the only noise in the room came from the rooms surrounding it. The teacher was an older man, James was pretty sure he had to be at least 50 years old. He had a grumpy look on his face, which made his wrinkles even more obvious. The man wasted no time and immediately started writing things on the big chalkboard behind him, as he spoke about the subject they were currently busy on.

The sounds of pen hitting paper echoed through the room, and when James looked around himself, everyone was busy taking notes. He bit his lip and stared at the chalkboard, cursing at himself. When he walked into the empty classroom, he made sure to get, what he thought, was the best spot in the room. He picked the window side for fresh air, and made sure to almost sit in the back of the class, so that he had a good view of everyone, including the chalkboard. What James didn’t know, was that five minutes later his best spot turned into the worst. The one cloud in the sky, that was first blocking the sunlight, had now moved on, and so the sun was now shining brightly through the windows, blocking most of James’ view. He bit his lip, and took a deep breath to try and keep himself calm. He really didn’t want to make a fool out of himself even more today, but he had no other option.

He slowly raised his hand into the air and waited, waited for the giggles and whispers to start, but nothing happened. James looked around again, only to find out that his classmates were so busy paying attention that no one had noticed a thing. He was sure that there could be a guy running around in a fly costume in the room and still no one would react. He raised his hand a little higher as he watched the teacher write more and more onto the chalkboard. He cleared his throat, hoping that would be enough to attract some attention to him, but it didn’t help at all.

James let out a sigh as he supported his elbow, his arm was slowly getting tired after a few minutes of being in the air. He had cleared his throat a few more times, with no success. He was about to give up hope when the teacher turned around and looked at him.

“Yes?” was all the teacher said.

“Uhm” James started strong, “ S-sir, Can you, uh, could the windows, uhm, I mean, C-can I shut, n-no.. close, Can I close the cur- uh, blinds, p-please? I, the sun, u-uhm, light is blocking… I.. I can’t see..”. James sulked into his seat as soon as he heard whispers around him.

The teacher cleared his throat, causing the students to quickly stop talking. “No, if I do that the room turns cold” and with that he turned around again and continued as if nothing happened.

James stared at his teacher with wide eyes. He wasn’t sure if what just happened was real or if his mind made it up. He opened his mouth, then decided to close it again, as he was sure that more talking wouldn’t help, it’s not like he wanted to talk more anyway. He wasn’t sure what to do next, close the blinds himself? Or maybe try and move to a different seat, or maybe he should ask if he could do that. He contemplated both options, until he came up with a third, way better option. He picked up his Biology book, and set it upright on his desk. Then he lowered his head until the book blocked the sunlight from hitting his eyes. He grabbed his pen and started writing down the teacher’s notes, smiling to himself. This plan was brilliant, no one was paying attention to him anyway, the teacher’s back was to the students at all times and he could finally read what was on the chalkboard.

James’ happiness sadly didn’t last long. It only took a few minutes before the teacher turned around and stopped mid-sentence.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded.

It took James a few seconds to realize that the question was directed to him. He opened his mouth, wanting to explain himself, but he couldn’t find any words to say. James looked down in shame, put his book back down, and held his head in his hands when the teacher looked away again.

He tried to come up with a different solution, but everything he tried was frowned upon by his teacher. He wasn’t even allowed to hold his hand against his forehead. By the end of the lesson James was sure that the teacher hated him. He got called out several times for doing nothing, and when he tried to explain himself the teacher dismissed it as being lazy. Eventually James just gave up, as every time he spoke he just stuttered more and more.

James remained in his seat, defeated and tired, as the rest of the class collected their stuff and left. He was rubbing his forehead and staring at the one line he managed to copy, when someone tapped his shoulder. James looked up at the student, who smiled at him.

“Hey, if you want, you can copy my notes, I saw Mister Sanders was giving you a hard time” the boy explained, as he put his notebook onto James’ desk. “Don’t worry about it too much, he does that to everyone that draws attention to themselves”.

James’ face lit up, this had to be the first great thing that happened to him today. “T-thanks!” he stuttered, then put everything on his desk into his bag. He stood up and looked at the guy, who had waited patiently for him. “M.. uh, I’m James” he smiled.

The boy smiled back. “My name is Iker” he said, and walked out of the classroom with his new friend.


	4. Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to let everyone know that, there won't be any Crismes in any of the following chapters/parts, I already know the rough ideas for those words and just none fit with Cris or Crismes, so just, don't expect any of that any time soon, I'm sorry to those who were  
> So yeah the next couple of chapters will mainly be about our three friends and who they are and why they are that way

James was really glad with his new friend. Well, he wasn’t sure if Iker considered them friends yet, but James sure did. He was hoping they’d have their next class together, or all their classes for that matter, but James wasn’t that lucky. James didn’t need to be that lucky though, because Iker offered to escort him right to where he needed to be. James wanted to thank him a million times, but his new friend, or well, almost friend, had to run off to make it to his own class.

It was a good thing Iker brought him to his classroom, because James was sure he never would’ve been able to find it on his own. It was hidden away in the back of the school, three stairs up, and there was only one way to get too it. James felt like even the teacher had trouble finding it, as he arrived a few minutes after the other classes has already started.

The room itself was just as weird as the way to get too it. It wasn’t very big, there were just a few windows in it, and it smelled weird too. It was filled with odd movie posters James had never seen before. Some people might’ve found it a very interesting room, but James preferred to be out of there rather sooner than later.

By the time he was finished looking around, his classmates had already taken their seats, and there was only one left. All the way in front of the class, on the window side, was an empty seat, right next to the only other person in the room that wasn’t talking to anyone. James sat down and looked at the kid, who seemed to ignore James because he didn’t even look up. James tried to get a look at his face, but the boy had hidden his head in between his arms.

“Welcome everyone, I’m so glad to see you all here in my philosophy class. I have something very special planned for today, so let’s get right to it!” The teacher said smiling. “I want you all to remain in your seats while we do a little fun exercise!” he explained, as he walked up to the windows and closed the blinds.

The room got a little darker, but the light from the lamp lit it up enough to still be able to see everything. James stared at his teacher, somehow he fitted perfectly with the room. James wondered if all philosophy people were this.. weird.

The teacher walked to the door. He lowered the curtain of the hall window, and then stood in front of the door. “I’m going to turn off the lights, and I want all of you to think about the darkness, don’t let your thoughts wander off too far! Once I turn the lights on again I want to know your thoughts” he said, and then flipped the switch.

There were a few yelps and gasps coming from the other students, followed by a few giggles as well. After a few minutes of darkness people started to whisper to each other, there was a scream and then laughing, followed by the angry voice of the teacher, telling everyone to focus and be quiet.

James laid his head on the table and sighed, what was he suppose to think? It was dark yes, but he wasn’t scared or nervous, he didn’t like it, but he didn’t not like it either. Maybe the teacher lied to them and this was all just an experiment to see how a bunch of teenagers would react in a dark room, or maybe the teacher would change a few things and then ask someone what was different. James banged his head a little on the table as he kept repeating the word “Darkness” in his head, maybe that would help him think of something.

He got abruptly pulled from his thoughts by a tug on his leg. He looked around, before realizing that it was too dark to see anything. He bit his lip and moved his leg around, hoping he’d bump it against whatever touched him, but he didn’t feel anything. Two hands grabbed his shirt and pulled him to the floor, and before he understood what was going on those same hands were now gripping the back of his shirt. It took some time for James to realize that he was being hugged. The boy who sat beside him had pulled him underneath the tables and was now holding onto him for dear life. James didn’t really know what to do, and so he did the only think he could do. He slowly put his arms around the kid and patted his back a little. James felt incredibly awkward, but apparently what he was doing helped, as the grip on his shirt loosened up a little.

He stayed like that, waiting for the other to let go first, which only happened after the lights turned on again. It ended as quick as it started, James’ eyes had barely adjusted when the boy had already moved back. James rubbed his eyes to help them get used to the light. He then got up, as he didn’t want to give his classmates yet another reason to laugh at him. However, he had forgotten that the boy had pulled him underneath the tables, and so he did the very thing he wanted to avoid. James bumped his head with a loud bang, causing everyone to look his way.

That’s when his third great plan of the day popped into his mind.

He groaned loudly and rubbed his head, making sure to exaggerate as much as possible to keep the focus on him. His peers laughed and mumbled things to one another, but for this once James didn’t care. He knew the boy that was sitting next to him was still under the table too, and by drawing attention to himself, no one noticed the kid getting back in his seat again. James sat down, still rubbing his head a little, as it actually did hurt him. He then looked at the guy, who smiled at him and mouthed a “thank you”. James smiled back and held up his thumb.

The rest of the lesson went by quick and was uneventful. The teacher asked a few students what their thoughts were, thankfully skipped James and the boy next to him, and then made up a whole story about everything he was thinking during the event. James was pretty sure that the teacher had written it all beforehand, as his speech was long and full of associations with philosophical stuff. He was glad when the bell finally rang. He got up quickly and wanted to get out of the classroom as soon as possible, but was stopped by someone tugging on his sleeve. James looked down at the boy next to him.

“I’m Isco, or well, that’s what everyone calls me, my real name is Francisco, but because it’s long people stick to Isco” The boy smiled.

“James, I’m, just, James”.


	5. Seeking Solace

The rest of James’ school day was great, amazing even. It probably even was the best school day he ever had. After Philosophy class was another lunch break, but this time he didn’t have to sit alone. Isco happily joined him, as he didn’t have any friends of his own. James was surprised by how much Isco talked, as he was completely quiet during the previous class. He didn’t mind the talking though, it meant he didn’t have to talk a lot himself, plus James didn’t have the heart to interrupt him.

Isco was still talking during lunch, the only times he would be quiet was when he took a bite out of his sandwich or drank some water. After James longingly looked at the water, Isco caught on and offered him some, which James gladly accepted.

About halfway through Iker found them, James happily let him join but Isco seemed to be a little less happy about it. After Iker sat down with them Isco went quiet and barely said a word, but James didn’t really mind because he now had Iker to talk to. Iker talked less than Isco, which forced James to talk, or rather, stutter more. Iker had a lot more interesting things to say though, he knew the school a lot better, he knew the people a lot better, he observed more while Isco rather stuck with his own little world. James really liked both of his new friends, he liked how they were quite different, yet he could get along great with both of them so far.

When James got home he felt like nothing could ruin his day, he was just so happy with how his first day turned out. He didn’t care about the embarrassment he had to go through at the beginning of his day, he didn’t care about any further embarrassment he’d have to go through, he felt like he’d be just fine as long as Iker and Isco were his friends, that’s how happy he was with them.

Since he was home alone for now, he got himself something to eat and drink before he started doing his homework. He figured he might as well do it now so that he couldn’t forget to do it later, as was what often happened when he procrastinated things. Luckily the teachers didn’t give him a whole lot to do yet, so it only took him an hour to finish it all. By the time he was done his mother had come home.

She walked through the door, put her bag down and looked around. “Why didn’t you do the dishes James?” Were the first words that came out of her mouth.

“I-I did some, uhm, I thought.. Homework first and then..” James tried to explain, but his mother interrupted him.

“It’s always the same with you, I work hard and when I come home you have done nothing. Do you know how much I do for you?” She yelled.

“B-but..” James tried to speak up.

“Go do the dishes now!”.

James gave up and dragged himself to the kitchen. He sighed as his mother went on about how horrible her day was, how annoying her co-worker was and how her costumers were always complaining. It was all part of James’ daily routine, getting yelled at over chores, hearing his mother complain about work, his dad, him, school, his grades, or pretty much about anything, he had gotten used to it.

James washed the dishes, dried them off and then put them back where they belonged. This time his mother decided to complain about one of her co-workers, who apparently thought she was and knew better than everyone else. James was sure that it wasn’t as bad as she described it to be, but she always did that, with everything. His mother loved to exaggerate, she loved to point out how she was the hard working single mother who had to raise a little brat, she just loved to play the victim.

Once James was done he walked towards his mother. “M-mom, I had, my day was, i-it was great” he started, a smile forming on his face as the memories flashed through his mind.

“Not now James, I’m tired” she answered, and turned the tv on.

James bit his lip, normally he wouldn’t mind if his mother cut him off like that, but not today. He tried again, but got the same answer. He knew what she actually meant, he knew she just wanted him to go to his room and leave her alone, he knew that she didn’t care, but he really wanted her to care. He wanted her to care about his first day at his new school and about how nervous he was, about how in the end he made friends faster than he ever did. For once he just wanted her to at least pretend she cared about him.

Defeated, James made his way to his room. His great day wasn’t so great anymore, his happy mood was now completely gone. He let himself fall onto his bed and reached for his phone. He wanted to call someone, he wanted to call Isco or Iker and talk to them, he wanted them to comfort him, to tell him it was alright and that they’d make sure to cheer him up tomorrow. Though he realized that he didn’t have their phone numbers yet, he didn’t even think about asking them today because he already was so happy to just have found people that seemed to like him.

James turned around and buried his face in his pillow. He felt like crying, but no matter how hard he tried his eyes stayed as dry as they were before. If only he had a way to contact them, if only he knew where they lived so he could go to their houses and hug them tight. Instead he was all alone in his bedroom, stuck with someone who barely cared about him at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I skipped through all the school stuff because else it would've gotten too long and too much work for me, plus going through all that wouldn't have fit the word for this chapter very well, but I didn't want to skip it completely because I felt like it would give more insight on James


	6. Break away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is where I up the rating because of swearing  
> You have been warned

James rubbed his eyes as he walked into the school building. He covered his mouth when he let out a yawn, and made his way to his locker. He didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night, but he was used to it, it wasn’t anything new. He had plenty of days where he went to school on a few hours of sleep, and he always managed to get it through the day without falling asleep.

It just would’ve been nicer if he hadn’t been crying all night.

People say that some sleep could do wonders, but not for James, he still felt as shitty as he did the night before, maybe even worse because he had to get up early and spend half of his time on his hair, because there was this one godawful bit that just wouldn’t stay down. Because of that he barely had enough time to shove some food in his mouth, drink a bit of water and make it to the bus. Thank god he was right on time, a few seconds later and the bus would’ve left without him, it was the only good thing that happened to him since he got home yesterday.

He was hoping he’d run into Isco or Iker soon, he didn’t feel like searching half the school just to figure out where his first class of the day was. Not that he had no sense of direction, or all his classes were hard to find, he just felt like he’d walk past the right classroom about ten times before realizing it was the right one, because he was so tired.

It took him a few seconds before he managed to open his locker. He rubbed his eyes again, then stared at the little schedule with his classes on it for advice. He took out some of the books he needed and put them in his backpack, and that’s when he noticed someone was staring at him.

He looked around to find out he was surrounded by a small group of five people. They were all staring at him, making him feel very uneasy. Even though he was tired, he was pretty sure what this meant, and he prayed to God that his thoughts were wrong. He noticed that two of the people were in classes he had yesterday.

“You’re the new kid right?” one of them asked.

James stared at him, blinked a few times, and then nodded. There was no point in lying, he wouldn’t be able to slip past them, so he just accepted his faith.

“Say a few things” the guy spoke up again, with a grin on his face. “I told my friends you stutter like crazy, they want to hear it”.

James sighed and opened his mouth, before deciding to close it again. He turned around and squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to talk, he’d rather get laughed at, but he had no idea what to say.

“Hey, I asked you something!”.

James didn’t respond, he just stood with his back to them and prayed that they would go away soon.

The guy grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him against the lockers. “Listen up freak, if you just do as I say, we won’t beat you up”.

James wasn’t sure what happened, if the lack of sleep somehow made him more brave, or if he was just tired of having to go through this, but he fought back. He head-butted the guy that was holding him against the lockers, then threw his full bag at another to create some space for him to escape through, and then he ran. He ran as hard as he could. He heard someone cursing behind him, but he couldn’t look back. He made his way up two flights of stairs, and rushed through the, still fairly empty, hallways of the school. At one point he dared to look back, and saw that he was still being followed. When he turned his head again he felt himself crash into something, that same something prevented him from falling.

“What’s going on?” someone asked.

James tried to focus, but everything was blurry. Tears had welled up in his eyes again, he was definitely screwed now. He kept his eyes closed, waiting for the inevitable to happen, but it didn’t. James looked up to find that someone stood in between him and his new bullies, and that someone looked very familiar to him.

“What the fuck is going on here?! Why the hell are you motherfucking assholes chasing him?!” the person yelled.

James saw the group back up. He was amazed by what he saw, they actually looked scared.

“You better goddamn back the fuck up before I break your motherfucking faces! Don’t you ever fucking dare to come close to him again or you’re dead! You fucking sons of bitches!”.

With that, they all ran off as fast as they could. James kept staring, everything that just happened felt very unreal to him, no one had ever stood up for him like that. The person turned around and James moved back a little. That amount of swearing, and the way the person said, or rather, yelled it, would make anyone scared.

“James, relax, I’m not going to hurt you” the person said, slowly making their way to him.

James’ eyes widened as he realized who it was, he never would’ve expected such words to come out of his mouth. James calmed down and took a step closer, but as the tears came back he flung his arms around the person and hugged them tight.

“T-thank you s-s-so m-much, I-Iker” he sobbed against his shoulder.

Iker was surprised, he didn’t really know what to do. People rarely dared to come close to him, and they definitely never hugged him. He decided to just pat James’ back awkwardly, and hoped that it would help.

“Uhm, no problem, let’s, let’s get you to class okay?” he suggested, to which James nodded.


	7. Heaven

After a few days of spending most of his time with Iker and Isco at school, James felt like it was time they met outside of school. Not only because he liked both of them very much and he’d rather be with them than at home, but also because Isco was still quiet when Iker was around. He tried telling Isco that Iker was alright and that he even helped him out, but the only thing that did was that Isco now at least said hi to Iker. James wasn’t sure if Isco was just shy around new people, didn’t trust most people, or if he had anything against Iker, but he was determined to change it. He desperately wanted Iker and Isco to be friends, because it was kind of awkward that they only hung out because they both wanted to be around James.

So James told himself that, before classes started, he’d ask both of them if they wanted to meet outside of school.

He tried, he really tried to ask them, the question was at the tip of his tongue the entire time. He just had to open his mouth and it would come out, but he didn’t do that, he kept quiet. As the day went on he started to worry more and more if this was a good idea. What if they didn’t like him that much? What if, outside of school, they both had tons of friends they hung out with and they didn’t need him to be a part of that? What if they didn’t want to hang out with each other?

It was almost time for the second lunch break and he still hadn’t asked. Isco poked him in his side, whispering to him, trying to figure out what was wrong, but James was too busy worrying that he didn’t notice. Isco didn’t stop poking him, and by the time the bell rang James’ side was sore. He held his side and groaned as he and Isco made their way to the cafeteria.

“James, come on, talk to me, it’s obvious something is wrong with you and you’re ignoring me or you’re very deep in thoughts because anyone else would’ve hit me like five times already for the amount of times that I poked you. Hello? James? Earth to James? Houston we have a problem!” Isco tried, but James stayed quiet.

Iker met up with the two of them at the table they claimed as their own. Isco still tried to get James to talk, but gave up when he sat down.

“Is he still quiet?” Iker asked, to which Isco nodded. Iker shook his head and took a bite from his sandwich.

James stared ahead as his knee was bouncing up and down. He was going to ask them , right here, right now. He knew he was worrying them and it made him feel bad, and so he had no other option left. He took a deep breath and then opened his mouth.

“D-.. S-so.. Would.. uhm.. Doyouguyswanttohangoutafterschool…?”.

Iker stared at him with furrowed brows. “What?”.

Isco bit his lip, then mumbled , “he asks if we want to hang out..”.

“Oh, yeah sure, when? And where?” Iker answered.

James looked at Iker, smiled, and then turned his head towards Isco.

“Okay” Isco said, shrugging a little.

James smile grew bigger, which Iker chuckle slightly.

“James, when and where?” he asked again.

“U-uhm, tomorrow?” James responded.

“Sure, at your place?” Iker replied.

James quickly shook his head. There was no way in hell he was going to let his mother nag at them too. “Y-yours?” he asked.

Iker shook his head too. “I’d rather not..” he said, trailing off a little. “Isco’s house then?”.

Isco looked up. “Yeah, sure, my dad won’t mind” he answered.

James smiled again, that turned out to be easy. They exchanged phone numbers, to discuss further details, and in case anything unexpected would happen.

~

The next day, after school, Iker pulled up in front of Isco’s house. James got out of the car and looked at the house, while he waited for Iker. Iker had his driver’s license already, and so he ended up picking James up before going to Isco’s. He got out too and locked his car, then walked up to the door and knocked. The door opened within seconds, as if Isco had been waiting right in front of it. He stepped aside to let the two boys in.

“Uhm, we can go upstairs and play video games?” he mumbled, to which the other two nodded.

They followed Isco upstairs to his room. When he opened the door, they were both amazed by what they saw. There was a big tv screen against the wall, underneath a bunch of different gaming consoles, and a small couch in front of the tv, big enough for the three of them.

“You guys wanna play Fifa? I hope none of you roots for Barcelona.. And I hope you both like Real Madrid, because that’s who we’re gonna be” Isco suggested.

Iker and James both didn’t object, and so they ended up playing Fifa. Isco gave them a simple explanation of the game, and continued to give advice as they were playing. James was struggling to keep up, he messed up a lot, but luckily Isco was so good that it didn’t matter. After a few matches James sighed and put his controller down.

“You two.. go ahead” he said.

“We could switch game?” Isco asked.

They all agreed on that, and so Isco stopped the game and switched it for a different one. Isco started up a fighting game. This time the three of then couldn’t play at the same time, so they decided to take turns. Iker and James were first, since they both had the least experience.

The two of them were messing around, trying to understand the buttons. Sometimes they’d try out a combo, but they weren’t that easy to pull off. Iker started to get more frustrated, and he could feel himself getting angry.

“Fucking hell, I’m pressing the buttons but it won’t work! What kind of stupid game is this?” he mumbled angrily to himself.

James and Isco both looked at each other. They could tell that the other was getting scared. James knew what kind of things could come out of Iker’s mouth, and judging from Isco’s reaction, he was sure Isco knew too. Neither of them dared to say anything, they just slowly moved away from Iker and pray that he wouldn’t get mad at them.

Iker groaned and then stood up “Isco, where’s the bathroom..?” he asked as calm as he could.

“D-downstairs, first door right..” Isco answered quickly.

“ ‘xcuse me” Iker muttered as he walked away.

James and Isco watched him leave. They stayed quiet, expecting to hear all sorts of swear words being yelled through the house, but nothing happened. They didn’t hear a thing, no matter how quiet they were.

Iker came back after a couple of minutes, looking very calm, as if nothing happened. He sat down and smiled at the two. “Where were we?”.

Isco decided that it was better to change game, and so they did. This time he put in a shooting game, one they could play with the three of them. Isco kicked their asses hard, and about halfway through Iker and James teamed up against Isco, because neither of them had been able to kill Isco so far. James bit his lip as he heard Iker groan and sigh beside him, but this time he didn’t get angry.

“Damnit Isco, you’re just too good!” he chuckled after yet another failed attempt to take Isco out.

Isco smiled at Iker. “You two are kind of making it hard for me, I constantly need ammo and you have different weapons than me, and I like my weapons better so I don’t really want to swap”.

After Isco obliterated them, they only managed to kill him once, they decided to switch game again. James put his controlled down, as it was a two player game again.

“How about, uhm, Why don’t.. you two, play” he suggested.

“Sure” Isco replied, “So, this is a puzzle game, and I know most of the puzzles, so how about I explain how the game works and then you solve them? You can try things out for as long as you want and if you want a hint I’ll give you one, and yeah just tell me what to do when you think you know how to solve it”.

Iker nodded, and after Isco’s instructions, he looked around in the first map. Within half a minute he figured it out, without moving his character at all. James was impressed, but Isco didn’t seem to be phased that much yet. After Iker solved the next few puzzles within record time Isco spoke up.

“Not bad for your first time, this is your first time right? You haven’t played it before today, and didn’t watch any videos on it either right?” he said.

“Nope, first time” Iker smiled.

They played more levels, more difficult levels, and Iker continued to impress both of them. After a rather difficult map, Isco threw his hands up.

“This is insane! You must be some sort of genius, how are you so smart? I couldn’t even figure this out on my own!” Isco exclaimed .

Iker laughed in response. “I don’t know”.

James watched them smiling. This is exactly what he wanted, for them to get along, to laugh, without him having anything to do with it. He could tell Isco had opened up, as he talked more and more, until he almost couldn’t shut up anymore.

Just when James was about to feel left out, Isco suggested to do a three player game again. James happily grabbed his controller as Isco started up the game. He picked the first level, so that Iker and James could figure the controls out on their own, which turned out to be very easy. They played a few levels before switching over to community levels. They had the most fun with those, and Isco didn’t have that big of an advantage in this game. They laughed and played and laughed more until their stomachs hurt.

In the end they stayed over for dinner, played more games after that. It was weird for James to go home again. He had so much fun, he had forgotten all his worries, he didn’t even care about his stutter. He had never felt so happy in his entire life. He was still smiling as Iker dropped him off and drove off. He ignored his mother’s complaining as he went straight to his room. He lay down on his bed and stared at the ceiling, the smile still on his face. This must be what heaven feels like, he thought to himself as he closed his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow that was a lot longer than usual, I'm sorry for the vague descriptions of the games, but else it would've gone on forever  
> For anyone who's interested, these are the games they played: Fifa (of course), Mortal Kombat (or any game like that), Call of Duty, Portal 2, and Little Big Planet (any of the three)


	8. Innocence

James was really glad that his friends got along well now. Isco actually talked to Iker after the day they spent together, he talked a whole lot, mostly about football. James never really got into the sport so he didn’t understand why they both were so passionate about it, and so more meetings were being planned so that they could all watch it together.

For once James was glad that lunch was over, Iker and Isco had been talking about their favourite sport the entire time, and even though James didn’t mind not having to talk, he didn’t like being left out. He already started to feel like sooner or later they would ditch him for someone who did like the sport. Next up was Science class, which luckily didn’t feature Isco, so that he could maybe have a little talk with Iker.

James and Iker sat down next to each other, as they did from the day they met. They placed their books on their tables, so it looked like they were doing something, and then James turned to Iker. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it after realizing he didn’t really know what to talk about right now. His lip got caught in between his teeth as he was thinking hard of an interesting topic.

“Everything alright?” Iker chuckled lightly.

James blushed slightly and nodded. “Uh, y-yeah”.

“Alright, and if you want us to have our little meetings over at your place then just say so, okay?” Iker said.

James gave a little smile “Yeah uh, I don’t think.. That.. Not uh.. yeah… n-not a good idea” he answered.

Iker nodded in response. “Yeah, I understand”.

James was about to ask how, when the teacher stood up and started talking. He bit his lip again, should he still ask, or would it be better to save it for later? But then how would he bring it up? Should he just ask it out of the blue or should he wait until a similar subject rises again? Or should he even come up with the subject himself?

Iker pulled him out of his thoughts by shaking him a little. It took a few times, but eventually James looked his way, and gave him a thankful smile. Iker put his thumb up and then turned his attention to the teacher.

James continued to try and think of ways to ask Iker, and of things they could talk about, while at the same time paying as much attention to the class as he could. From time to time he’d miss gaps of the teacher’s explanation, but there were notes on the chalkboard, and if he missed those too there was always Iker.

James attention fully went to the teacher when he asked a student to come forward to solve a problem. His eyes went wide as he noticed for the first time that the boy who made him feel weird also happened to be in his class. He didn’t know whether to feel happy about it or not. Sure something about this boy was very intriguing, but that also was a problem. James already had trouble concentrating because his mind would go on and on about all kinds of different things, and now he had another thing to distract him. Although he didn’t really mind that much to be distracted by him, because the weird feelings actually felt sort of nice and he found that a lot of things the boy did would make him smile. His mind couldn’t settle on whether it was good or bad.

Even when his second lunch break began, the thought of the boy still hadn’t left his mind. Isco looked at Iker, expecting him to have an answer, but Iker had no idea what was going on either. One moment he was paying attention in class, and the next he was off to some faraway dream world no amount of shaking could get him out of. They sat down and waited, hoping that James would eventually return to them.

Isco eventually got tired of waiting and put a wet finger into James’ ear. James yelped and tried to swat Isco’s hand away, while Iker watched it all happen in amusement. James glared at Isco, and Isco grinned back at him.

“Welcome back among the living people Hammy! We dearly missed you” he joked.

James kept glaring while he wiped his ear. “N-not funny..” he grunted.

“You were so lost in thoughts, we had to take drastic measures” Iker shrugged. “What were you thinking about anyway?”.

For some reason James’ cheeks heated up, he had no idea why it happened, but he knew he didn’t like it. He tried to hide his face but it was already too late.

“It has to be something very embarrassing, though you said he’s been lost in thoughts for over an hour right? Then it must be something very special, or someone” Isco stated.

James put his arms on the table and then hid his face in them. He growled when Iker or Isco tried to get him out of hiding.

“Come on James, you can tell us, we won’t make fun of you, I promise” Iker tried to reassure him.

“Yeah definitely, if it makes you feel better I can tell you some very embarrassing things about myself” Isco added.

James sighed and leaned back into his chair. He thought about a good way to say it, but his mind turned into a mess again, and so the best thing was just to start talking. “I, It, uh, yes, you are.. it’s.. shit.. someone” James tried to say as his entire face heated up.

“Someone you like?” Isco asked.

James shrugged. He didn’t like him right? They were both boys, there was no way James could like him, but he had no idea what else it could mean either.

“Okay, uhm, how do they make you feel?” Iker responded.

James bit his lip. “W-weird, uhm.. m-my.. stomach..” James answered.

“Does it feel.. flutterly? And nice, different from how your stomach usually feels? Like it’s different from having good food or having bad food or just feeling sick” Isco explained.

James nodded.

“And said person makes you happy for no reason at all? Like when they smile you can find yourself smiling too, or when they look at you, you feel embarrassed and all?” Isco continued.

James nodded again. He stared at his hands, which were laying on his lap.

“I think you have a crush on them” Iker stated, while Isco nodded along.

James bit his lip again and shook his head. “He.. uh.. yeah..” he stuttered as he sunk further into his chair.

Iker looked around and then moved closer. “James, there is nothing wrong with liking guys, I like them too” He almost muttered.

James looked up at Iker, still a little unsure. Iker smiled and patted his back, and Isco ruffled his hair.

“You like who you like, can’t do much about it” Isco smiled.

James smiled too and nodded. “Okay”.

Iker moved back again and watched James. “Did you really not know it’s a crush? Have you ever even done anything with someone?” he asked.

James blushed again and shook his head.

“I haven’t either! “ Isco immediately spoke up, hoping it would make James feel less bad.

Iker crossed his arms as he looked at both at his friends. “Really? I didn’t expect that”.

“Well what have you done then?” Isco asked, looking back at Iker with a raised eyebrow.

Iker smiled and moved closer again. “Well, I’ve kissed quite some girls, I’ve had them suck me off a few times, and I’ve had sex” he answered honestly. “And I sucked someone off” he said quietly, after his eyes darted to the people around them again.

Isco’s eyes widened. “Really?”.

“Yeah, really” Iker chuckled in response.

“With your crush?” Isco asked.

Iker’s smile grew smaller. “No, I haven’t done any of that with my crush” he answered.

“W-why?” James replied as he looked up at him.

“Because” Iker sighed. “Because I met my crush while on vacation, and I didn’t tell my crush how I felt, and I was stupid enough to not ask for any way to connect when we were both home” he explained.

It was quiet for a bit until Isco spoke up. “I’m sorry, that really sucks, I hope you find your crush again”. 

“Thanks” Iker smiled slightly. He let out a big sigh and then smiled more. “But enough about that, we need to help our friend out with his crush”.


	9. Drive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know if anything doesn't make sense and I'll change it so it hopefully is understandable  
> Unless it's something I want to keep a secret a little longer

Iker had enough, he was so sick of everything, he just couldn’t take it anymore. Having to go through the same shit every single day was just too tiring, and he didn’t want to deal with it anymore. He was done, done with all of it, he didn’t want to try anymore, he didn’t want to care anymore, because nothing was going to change anyway, ever.

So he grabbed his bag, gathered some clothes, some important items, and then closed it up. He took his car keys and without saying a word he walked past his parents, not that they noticed him anyway. They were too busy in their own stupid little world to care about him, hell the only times they cared about him was when they were using him to get back at the other, that’s how it always went.

Iker slammed the door shut, though he was sure the gesture would go unnoticed, and walked to his car. He got in and without the slightest hesitation he drove off. He wasn’t sure where he was going yet, as long as it was far, far away from his parents. They wouldn’t be worried, he wouldn’t even be surprised if it took them forever to report him as missing. They never noticed when he ran away anyway, not that he was gone for long, it was always a few hours mostly, because in the end some stupid reason would cause him to come back. But not this time, this time he’d run away for real, this time there was no coming back.

The anger inside of him slowly started to boil hotter and hotter with every little thing that would annoy him. First the traffic light stayed red for a ridiculous long time, then some asshole cut him off, people were driving too slow, they barely watched where they were walking, the list went on and on. At one point he was nearly shaking with anger, and that’s where he decided that parking along the road would be a good idea before anyone would get seriously hurt.

Why did he had to be in this shitty situation, why wasn’t it just one real shitty thing, his problems were already bad enough separately, but no, apparently someone thought it wasn’t enough and decided to combine a whole lot of shitty situations for him to be in. The worst was that they all fitted together so well, one situation made the other worse and the next even more worse and it was just ridiculously stupid. You’d think he deserved a little bit of luck, but apparently not.

It all started when his stupid grandma died, why did she have to die? Couldn’t she have held out a little longer? If she hadn’t died then his parents wouldn’t have gone fucking crazy like they were now, if she hadn’t died his mother would still be a loving mom who would probably make him food every day, who would buy him his favourite food and drinks, and his dad would be the awesome dad he used to be, helping him out with homework, buying him the coolest gifts. Instead he was stuck with a married couple who were either arguing and yelling and cursing at each other one moment, only to have make up sex five minutes later. After his grandma died his parents turned into sex-crazed-animals, and their angry sex was so good that it completely destroyed their happy family.

Now that he was thinking about it, it was actually his uncle’s and aunt’s fault. Why would they adopt his little brother because his parents behaviour was too out of control for a child his age, but leave him with them, because apparently when you are thirteen you can handle that kind of stuff. He understood that it was definitely too bad for a six-year-old to handle, but this situation would’ve been harmful to any child. Oh how he begged them to take him with them after the first half year, how he would pray every single night for someone to take him away from there, or for his parents to stop because they were so loud and they just kept going.

By now Iker was screaming and cursing in his car. People were giving him weird looks, but he didn’t care, he was used to it after five years. He hit his steering wheel multiple times as he started crying. He continued to curse, his voice cracking up more the longer he cried. He was just so tired, he didn’t know what to do anymore. There were even times he thought he may be better off dead, but thankfully those thoughts never stayed long, as he was strong enough to understand that wasn’t the best solution.

His phone buzzed, which he had put on the passenger’s seat when he got in the car, and when he looked at it he saw he had several missed messages. He wiped the tears off his face and reached for it. There were some texts from Isco and a few more from James, he contemplated if he should look at them, but eventually decided it was better if he did.

-Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for saving me from those guys, I don’t think I really said thanks.. or I forgot I did, but anyway, thank you, I’m really glad you showed up when you did-

-You’re like the first person who shares the same thoughts as me about the Real Madrid team, they definitely are better than Barcelona! And I hate it when people say their players are overrated, they are completely underrated! I’m really glad to finally have someone who isn’t blind and who can see the amazement that is Real Madrid, I can’t wait to watch matches with you! Maybe if we can get James hooked on it too we could even go to a real match together!-

-Oh man I also realized I probably forgot to thank you for letting me borrow your notes multiple times already.. You saved my ass a few times already, and I hope you like my ass because I’m sure you’re gonna save it a hell of a lot more, Uh.. I hope that joke wasn’t inappropriate..-

-And thank you for not making fun of me because I’m a mega virgin, and for reassuring me it’s okay to like guys, even though I still kind of have to get used to the idea.. but hey at least I have supporting friends who will always help me-

-Eyo Ikey forgot to say that you can come and help me out with games whenever you want, having you help me out is a lot more fun than searching the whole internet for a good walkthrough that isn’t very vague, also my dad hopes you come by more often, he totally thinks you’re cool!-

-Ah I hope you’re not tired of the thank you’s yet, because I also want to thank you for being my friend and for not caring about my stutter and for being patient with me and I’m probably not very easy to deal with so thank you for putting up with me, and thank you for getting along with Isco, even though that may sound a bit weird, but I’m just really freakin glad the two friends I have get along with each other too, so, thank you for everything you’ve done for me already-

Iker bit his lip as tears streamed down his face again. He smiled at his phone, he smiled at the two idiots that are his friends. He couldn’t have wished for two better people to spend his time with.

He took a deep breath to fully calm down, and then put his phone away. His hands rested on the wheel, and after looking around, he turned the car around and drove back, back to his crazy parents. He couldn’t leave, not yet, not when there were two lonely kids who needed him just as much as he needed them.


	10. Breathe again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That latest chapter left me in a really good mood to write again, so here you go

James lay on his bed as he stared at his phone. He had just gotten a response from Iker, a simple and short ‘Thank you too’, and he was kind of hoping for more. He didn’t expect Iker to send him a whole story about how he was really glad to have James as a friend too, but a little more than those three words would’ve been nice. Although maybe he just wasn’t in a very good mood, it seemed reasonable to James that people sometimes just didn’t feel like talking, well except for Isco, Isco always talked a lot.

Maybe he’d thank him again tomorrow, just maybe, because James didn’t want to seem too desperate. He didn’t want his thank you’s to lose their value, even though he meant every single one of them. Unless they were meant to be sarcastic, but he was sure they’d know when he was being sarcastic.

James ended up sending Iker a smiling face, and in return he got a bigger one. This was satisfying enough for now, and he put his phone on his nightstand. He stared at the ceiling and let out a deep breath, it was weird how things turned out. He never expected that changing schools was the best thing to ever happen to him, even when the event that caused him to switch was one of the worst he had been through. A few flashbacks popped up and James shivered at the memory, it was one he’d love to forget.

~

It was Wednesday, and James just finished his first half of classes. He looked around him several times as he made his way through the school halls. Usually he would’ve been made fun of multiple times by now, but for some reason his bullies were being nice to him today. It made James even more anxious than usual, they never skipped a day, even when they barely shared classes together they would find ways to tease him. He hated the anticipation, he just knew something was gonna happen, but he didn’t know what and when, and how bad it would be.

He quickly made his way to the toilets and looked around once more before going inside. He made sure all the stalls were empty too before he did his business. He tried to go as fast as he could, and as soon as he was finished he let some water run over his hands before heading to the door. However, right before he touched it he saw someone twist the handle. Out of panic he hid in the first stall and decided to wait and see who it was before leaving.

James couldn’t believe his bad luck when two of his bullies walked in. He stayed very quiet and prayed for them to leave as soon as possible. They were talking, but not loud enough for James to hear it. He wanted to move closer to the door and listen, but he didn’t want to risk being caught either. He heard the toilet flushing, and water running, he was so close to being able to walk away without them noticing, but today wasn’t his lucky day.

“Oh James, did you really think we’d spare you today?” one of them grinned.

“There’s no way we can pass up an opportunity” the other snickered.

James pressed his feet against the door, whatever they were planning, he wouldn’t let them get in the stall. The only think they’d be able to do is make him late for his next class, and he could care less about that, he’d stay in there for as long as it would take for them to leave.

One of the bullies tried pushing the door open. “Come on James, just let us in, I promise it’ll be over quickly”.

He knew better, it was never quick, they’d always try to keep going for as long as they could, he was so screwed.

“Fine, then we’ll just come to you”.

James heard the stall next to him open, and when he looked up he saw an ugly grin peeking from the other side. He was trapped, the only two ways out for him were blocked. James desperately tried to call for help, but as soon as he opened his mouth the guy next to him sprayed something onto him. He didn’t know what it was, but it smelled horrible. He quickly covered his nose and mouth, and that’s when the other bully sprayed something different from under the door. James tried to wave the smell away, but it stayed trapped in the stall. He started coughing more and more as the air around him filled up with whatever was in the spray cans. His eyes teared up as the two guys laughed at him.

They finally had enough and left, leaving James coughing badly. He could barely breathe, his throat was burning and his chest hurt and he tried so hard to breathe but he couldn’t. He quickly opened the door and stumbled out of the stall. He started crying while he gasped for air. His whole body was hurting and he felt dizzy, he held onto whatever was around him and opened the door to the hallway.

Thankfully there was a teacher around, and she didn’t hesitate to call for an ambulance. She made James sit against the wall and talked to him. He barely heard what she said, his mind was racing and he couldn’t focus on anything. His world was spinning and he felt like he could faint at any minute.

James ended up staying at the hospital for a few hours, he was really tired by the time his mother came to pick him up. She kept asking him questions, and he just nodded or shook his head, or gave a few short answers when he needed to. He didn’t feel like explaining everything, he just wanted to go to his room and sleep forever. When they got home his mother immediately called the school, apparently she figured out that he must’ve been bullied for a while for this to happen, and so she told the principal that he wouldn’t be coming to school anymore. He figured she must’ve called a few other schools for him to go to instead after that, but as he was already sleeping by that time he didn’t know for sure.

~

The memory brought tears to run down his cheeks, he could remember exactly how he felt, what it was like to not be able to breathe at all. He took another deep breath, at least the incident didn’t have any lasting effects on his body, everything felt normal, and it helped him calm down. He grabbed his phone again and looked at his messages. Isco had gone quiet, probably because of dinner, but Iker had send him a few more messages. James smiled as he happily replied to them, knowing that he had people who would protect him now.


	11. Memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uploading this makes me very nervous, because I feel like it's lacking, it sounded a lot sadder in my head but I just couldn't find the right way to put it into words. I hope it's still decent enough and that Isco's feelings and experiences still feel somewhat real

Isco was rummaging through his stuff, while his phone was within his hand’s reach. He was telling James all sort of things about his favourite players, while looking for a specific something. James didn’t respond much, but it didn’t surprise Isco, he knew that once James found out how great football is to watch he’d eventually talk about players the same way. Isco just kind of wanted to prepare him, so he’d know a little about the team before they’d watch a match together.

Isco threw his clothes behind his back as he searched for a box. He knew it had to be in his room, because he already looked through the boxes in the attic. You see, Isco had a hard time throwing things away, something about emotional attachment that he didn’t quite understand himself, but because his room was too small for all his stuff, he put it in boxes. Those boxes were very organized, Isco was worried about losing things, so when he cleaned his room every three months he’d put the things he didn’t need neatly into boxes. He’d even write down what box held what, so he’d never have to search for too long.

Even though those boxes were organized, Isco’s room was far from it. His floor was covered in clothes, books, games and other things. He didn’t mind the mess that much, it never got too much to handle for himself because of his scheduled clean-ups, except for today. Today he was annoyed by the mess, as he had already been looking for the box for half an hour.

James had gone quiet, and so Isco completely focused on his search. He put some books aside, threw some papers behind him, picked up a dirty sock, of which he already wondered where it was, but he never bothered to look for it, and moved some plastic bags out of the way. Finally his eyes settled onto the paper box he had been searching for. He picked it up and put it on his bed, since there was no mess on there, and then sat down on the bed as well. He lifted the lid off the box and smiled when he looked inside. The game boxes were neatly packed next to each other, with the back upwards so that he could see which game it was. He read all the titles and found what he was looking for, but at the same time something else caught his eye.

He picked one game out of the box and studied it. He almost forgot he had it, he didn’t remember putting it in the box when he put the other games in. He didn’t even know how it got there in the first place, he thought he put it somewhere else. He barely remembered how the game went, but the title immediately brought back memories. Isco hadn’t played that game for over 8 years, in fact, he knew exactly how many days he hadn’t played it.

His hands trembled slightly as he turned it over to read the description of the game. There was a very good reason why he hadn’t seen or played it for a very long time. He remembered he liked the game a lot, he knew he used to play it a lot, and the only reason he hadn’t played it was because he was scared. He didn’t know what would happen if he tried to play it again because it was tied to an event he’d rather forget, he’d been trying for so long to process it, and he still wasn’t sure if he actually had or not. Isco took a deep breath. He really wanted to play it again..

He ended up opening the box and taking out the game. He already had grabbed his Gameboy Advance for the other game he wanted to play, so all he had to do was take it from his pillow. He plugged the game in and stared at the screen. This was his last chance to back out, but Isco felt confident enough, and so he switched on the power button.

The title screen popped up, and Isco immediately recognized it, he started to remember more things about the game as he opened his save file, the one he hadn’t played for over 8 years. Isco felt fine as he roamed the world inside the game, he got familiar with the mechanics again, and he was starting to enjoy himself, but as he got caught up more in the game, he got dragged into his memories as well.

All of a sudden Isco was back in the car, his small hands pressed the buttons as his parents were talking in the front seats. He wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying, they were talking about adult things anyway, until he heard his dad say his name. He looked up to find his dad smiling at him through the rear view mirror. His dad told him he was adorable, and he protested, saying that boys couldn’t be adorable. His mother turned to him, smiled sweetly and explained that boys could be adorable too. He remembered he muttered something and focused on his game again. He didn’t notice the headlights from the side until it was too late.

Isco was trapped, he could barely move his body and everything hurt. His breathing was panicky and he was disoriented, he didn’t know what happened or what was going on. He called out for his parents but he could barely speak. He was so scared. He tried climbing to the front of the car but his seatbelt prevented him from doing so. His hands were searching for something, anything that could help him.

His mother grabbed his hand. For a moment he panicked, but when he saw his mother’s bracelet he calmed down a little. He held onto it tightly as his mother spoke to him. Her voice was hoarse and weak, but she tried to sound strong. She told Isco she loved him, that everything was going to be okay, and then he fainted.

Isco got pulled back out of his flashbacks by his father, who had pulled him off the bed and into his arms. Isco’s hands gripped his father’s shirt as he cried, holding on for dear life. His dad held him tighter as he trembled badly.

“I’m here Francisco, you’re safe now, nothing is going to hurt you” his father whispered to him. He rubbed Isco’s back and kissed his head. “I got you, you’re okay, you’re safe”.

Isco slowly calmed down, but the grip he had on his dad stayed the same. His breathing was still shaky as he looked up at his dad with red eyes. “I m-miss her, I miss he-er so much” he cried out.

“I know..” his father responded as he pressed Isco’s head against his chest, “I miss her too..”.


	12. Insanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I wanted to post this earlier but things just went a little different than expected

James was annoyed, very annoyed, he had a frown on his face and he had no intentions to get rid of it. He didn’t care that people saw he was pissed off, he wanted people to know so they would get out of his way, and they did, and the few who didn’t got pushed out of the way, that’s how annoyed he was.

Isco and Iker looked at each other. They weren’t sure what to do, they had never seen James that mad before. They didn’t know if he wanted to be in their company, if it was okay for them to talk about the normal things, or if he rather would be left alone and get his anger out on everyone and everything that bothered him even a tiny little bit. They decided to wait until James came to them, and talked to them, it felt like the best option.

James didn’t come to them though, not before classes, and during classes he stayed pretty distant too. Not because he was mad at them, or didn’t want them around, but because he didn’t want to get mad at them too, he didn’t want to snap and say something mean and hurt his friends’ feelings. So he decided to wait until his anger had calmed down a bit and he had enough time to explain just why exactly he was so mad. 

That opportunity arrived during lunchtime. Iker and Isco looked up when James joined them, they were a bit surprised, on one hand they expected him to stay away from them all day, or at least until he looked less mad, but on the other they knew he would come to them, they were friends after all.

James sat down and ate his sandwich. Isco watched him, not sure if he should talk or not. Iker kicked him in the shin and gave him a look, trying to signal him that he should cut down the staring. James didn’t notice though, he was too busy angrily eating his sandwich and thinking about how he was going to explain what was going on in his busy mind. Isco opened his mouth to say something but Iker hit his leg again before he could say anything. Isco glared at Iker and rubbed his leg, but looked back at James when he let out a deep sigh.

“I.. m-my.. Mother is cr.. Unbe.. no.. insane!” James exclaimed.

Isco and Iker looked at each other again, then Iker spoke up after James didn’t continue, “Why?”.

“B-because.. I, we went, I needed.. s-socks, and I uh, I forgot my.. money, a-and wallet, and she.. com.. uh.. n- no.. got mad, be..cause she had to, to pay five euros” James stuttered. He clenched his fists and breathed out through his nose. “And then, s-she buys, st.. useless, st-tupid shit for her.. bedroom, for uh.. uhm.. 150 euros! She com..complains about having n-no money, but she.. she gets.. buys.. things we uh, we don’t.. n-need!”.

Iker let out a sigh. “That really sucks man, I’m sorry she does that to you”.

Isco nodded along, he knew his dad didn’t have a lot of money either but he was so glad he never mentioned it. He only found out after his father took on an extra job.

James ran his fingers through his hair and bit his lip. He squeezed his eyes shut and then started talking about all the other crazy things his mother did, how she was always complaining about everything, especially his father, who had moved out years ago, and even got remarried already. He told his friends about how she barely cared about anything he had to say, about how she often cut him off, told him to stop stuttering and to just get out with it, even though he had tried to explain many times that he just couldn’t do that. He told them that she didn’t notice the bruised he’d gotten from getting bullied at his previous school, and how it took a trip to the hospital for her to understand how bad it was.

Iker and Isco let James go on, they waited until he went quiet for a few minutes until they spoke up. They weren’t sure what to say, Iker knew that comforting words barely worked, and Isco had never experienced anything like that. So they stuck with ‘I’m sorry’s, and made sure James knew that they were there for him and that he could always talk to them to lift some weight off of his shoulders.

James looked up at them and smiled thankfully. “S-so uhm.. w-what are.. your parents l-like..?” he eventually asked.

Iker let out a weak chuckle. “My parents are insane too, they barely know I exist, they’re too busy fighting or having rough make-up sex” he shrugged. “I want to get away but I can’t, I can’t afford a place on my own and with school I don’t have the time to get a job for the money I need”.

“S-sorry..” James choked up. Now he understood why Iker didn’t want them to come over, and where he got all his swear words from.

Iker smiled weakly, and then looked at Isco. “What about you? What are your parents like?”.

Isco looked down and played with his fingers. He felt bad, he wasn’t sure why but he did. He knew it wasn’t his fault that his friends had sucky parents and that his dad rocked, maybe he felt that way because he felt a little left out. Not that he wanted his father to change, he loved him very much, but that was the thing, he was loved, and they weren’t..

“My dad’s really cool..” Isco confessed. He looked up to see the reactions, and to his surprise, both James and Iker were smiling. The bad feeling went away and he sat up more straight. “We do fun things together and he buys me nice things from time to time, he helps me study when I need it, and he tries to make the boring chores fun. He’s the best dad in the world, I’m so glad I have him, without him..” Isco went quiet for a second, he tried to fight back the tears but failed miserably. “Without him I wouldn’t be here right now”. It came out more dramatic than he intended to, but it didn’t make the words any less true. Isco was convinced that, if his father hadn’t loved him the way he did, he would’ve been in some sort of mental institution right now.

Iker rubbed his back as Isco wiped away the tears. “I’m glad you have such an amazing father” he smiled.

“You d.. d-deserve it” James added, and Isco smiled back.

“You two can come over as often as you want, dad was really happy I finally made some friends” Isco chuckled lightly.

“So after school would be fine? I could use some time away from my parents again” Iker suggested.

“Sure! Sounds great” Isco beamed.


	13. Misfortune

Everything was going to be perfect. Well, maybe not perfect, but it was going to be great, amazing even. James just had history class with Isco and Iker, and they managed to be the only three person group for the new project. They were really lucky with an uneven class and everyone else having a buddy, and they only had to beg the teacher a little bit, better said, Iker only had to beg a little. Since Iker was the one with the highest grades for history out of the three, he was the one who had to ask, he had the highest grades for most classes, but that was because Iker actually studied hard, whereas Isco and James were content with an average.

Every group got a country assigned to them, a country in Europe they had to write about. A page per person, which meant that James, Iker and Isco were the only ones that had to write three pages, but at the same time they got very lucky with their country, as they got Germany. They had to include major events in history for that country, and Germany had enough to choose from.

During lunch, Iker took leadership in their little group and decided what everyone would do. James would look into the first world war, Isco into the second, and Iker took it upon himself to search for other events that had nothing to do with the war. Isco immediately started talking about everything he knew about world war II, and James and Iker added anything he forgot. He wrote it all down so he could look it up as soon as he got home. James figured that he’d just search the internet for information, surely there was enough to find about the war, and else he’d ask for help when he needed it. They also decided they all would just write as much as they could, and add or delete things when it was needed.

They had about a week to write it all, so they decided to get together during the weekend to work on it together. It was going to be great, and James was already looking forward to it. He figured they could have some fun whenever they took a break, and he was even thinking about asking Isco if maybe they could stay over for the night as well.

Unfortunately, life didn’t want James to have a great time.

He woke up the next morning, feeling extremely hot. His pyjama was plastered to his body from sweating, every time he swallowed he felt the back of his throat sting, and his stomach didn’t feel great either. He shuffled downstairs and sat down on a chair with a sigh. His mother was downstairs as well, eating breakfast before going off to work.

“Hurry up and get dressed, else you’re going to be late for school” She said without looking up.

James moaned in response. He felt too tired to actually come up with words to say, or to get them out of his mouth.

“What is it?” His mother asked, not in the nicest way.

James sighed again and closed his eyes. At times like this he wished she could take a hint, or care about him enough to notice he was sick. He was pretty sure it wasn’t that hard to see he was in no condition to go to school. “S-sick..” he eventually mumbled.

His mother sighed and stood up. “Fine, I’ll let your school know, I better not get late for work because of you”.

James ate something, then took some pain killers and went straight back to bed. He hid his head under the blankets and hoped that it would be over soon.

The next day James felt somewhat better, but not good enough to go back to school yet. He had let Iker and Isco know of his unfortunate situation the day before, and they told him to rest until he felt better, and that they would take care of the project, and so James spend that whole day in bed. He was smiling at his phone, as both Iker and Isco had left him a message before they went to school, but the smile quickly disappeared when he came downstairs.

His mother was glaring at him, he had made her sick too. James cursed to himself, he was going to pay for this, he just wasn’t sure how yet. Whenever James got sick, which wasn’t very often, he tended to get his mother sick too, and she hated it. Even when James tried everything to get better as soon as possible, she’d still get mad at him, it was his fault she had gotten sick and he was going to pay for it. Sometimes that meant no computer, sometimes no Netflix, sometimes she made him stay in his room the entire day, but this time was worse, this time she turned their internet off.

James went back to his room, defeated. He hadn’t even eaten yet, but he didn’t feel like doing so anymore now. He wanted to work on the project, now that he felt a little better he figured he could do a little research on his computer, but now he couldn’t. He tried explaining that to his mother, but she just told him he should’ve thought about that before he made her sick. The only way for him to get on the internet was his phone, but trying to do the project on his phone just seemed like a terrible idea.

Somewhere in the afternoon, James phone started buzzing. When he looked to see what it was, he saw that Isco was video calling him. James doubted for a second, but then answered the call. Isco was smiling at the camera, and Iker was standing behind him.

“Hey, we decided to work on the project together already since you’re sick and we don’t have much else to do-” Isco started, when Iker interrupted him.

“Excuse me, you don’t have much else to do, I am giving up precious learning time here” he chuckled.

Isco rolled his eyes with a smile. “Fine, fine, I didn’t have much homework to do so I asked Iker to come here so we could work on it together, I figured that would make things go faster and it would be better and since you’re sick and can’t work on it it makes sense right? And then I came with the brilliant idea to call you so you can still help in a way! You can decide if it’s good enough and if you want and can you can just tell us what to write down and we’ll write it down, if that works out, and if talking doesn’t hurt..” Isco rambled on.

Iker covered his mouth and moved closer to the camera. “Just tell us what you want, and what you want us to do. We can send you what we have so far, we can read it to you, you decide, it’s your birthday” He said.

Isco managed to remove Iker’s hand from his mouth. “Well technically it isn’t your birthday, unless it is.. then happy birthday! But chances are higher that it isn’t but you know what we mean!”.

James cleared his throat. “Uh, r-read it, to.. to me” he whispered.

Isco immediately started reading, but after he stopped a few times to explain a few things, Iker pushed him aside.

“Let me do it, you’re only confusing him” He said, and then started reading.

Isco stood in the background with his arms crossed and an angry pout on his face.

James smiled as he watched and listened to his two best friends, he was already starting to feel a lot better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love writing Isco ramble on


	14. Smile

Things were looking up again for James. The history project was finished, it was looking quite good too in his opinion, he fully recovered from being sick, and his mother did too, and most importantly, he had his precious internet back. He never realized how much he used Netflix until he couldn’t, he was bored out of his mind when he was sick, because he really just didn’t know what to do. Usually he was watching his shows, sometimes some new ones if he didn’t know what to watch, but he couldn’t watch anything without internet. The one thing that kind of entertained him was the radio, but after hearing the same song for the 10th time that got boring too.

He was glad to be back, which felt weird, since he had never felt happy about being able to go to school. He was fairly sure this was the first time he felt that way, but it wasn’t bad, he could get used to this, especially after what happened while he was looking for Isco and Iker.

James scanned the faces around him, there were about 10 minutes left before classes started and the halls were packed with students. He tried standing on his toes to find his friend, but it barely helped at all. If anything it just made him bump into people more. One of those people stopped and looked at him.

“Oh it’s you, I’m glad to see you’re better again” the person said and smiled at James.

James looked at the person and wanted to say something back, but he ended up just staring when he saw it was his crush. He tried to say something but his throat closed up and his mind went completely blank. He managed to make himself smile when the guy chuckled, and then he watched him walk away. James kept looking at him until he disappeared out of sight, the smile still plastered on his face.

He felt someone grab his arm and turned around to see that Isco had found him. Isco smiled back at him, as James’ smile hadn’t disappeared yet.

“Hammy! I’m so happy you’re back! It was boring without you! I mean, Iker is a lot of fun to hang out with too but we missed you, you know! It’s just nicer when you’re around even though you don’t talk that much but hey that’s fine! Not everyone likes to talk and in your case I understand why you don’t talk a lot so it’s all good, I’m sure Iker will be glad to see you too, I think he may have gotten a bit tired because I was constantly talking to him, but I can’t help it that I just can’t stop, he knows, I know he knows because else he would’ve told me to stop already of course, I mean I can-“ Isco was saying when he was interrupted by their other friend.

“James! Come on, let’s get you to class so you won’t be late” Iker smiled, and dragged his two friends through the crowd.

~

By the time it was lunchtime James was still smiling. He found his crush in the huge crowd of people and he just couldn’t stop staring. He had his elbow on the table and his hand against his cheek to support his head. He sighed happily several times, and when his crush did something cute he would smile wider and bite his lip. The butterflies in his stomach were in full effect, and his head was too far up in the clouds to care what anyone thought of him.

Iker was trying to find out who he was staring at. He had noticed James’ attention was gone the minute they sat down at the table, while Isco was still happily telling James everything he missed, oblivious to James’ staring. He figured the best way to help James was to get his crush’s name, and then use his secret weapon to get James and his crush together. Iker thought he found the group James was looking at, but it was hard to pinpoint the right guy. He needed some help.

Iker grabbed James’ wrist and pulled his hand away from his face. It resulted in James almost hitting his chin on the table, after which he gave Iker the evil eye. Iker didn’t care though, he knew in the end James would thank him for it.

“Which one is it? The one with the fuzzy hair? The one with the dirty blond hair? Or do I have the wrong people in mind?” Iker asked.

James started blushing and shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but somehow he couldn’t talk again. He moved his hand through his hair, as if he was brushing it backwards, and then looked at the group again.

“Cris? Cristiano is your crush? The one with the earings and the gelled hair?” Iker responded.

James blush got worse as he nodded. The name rang through his head, Cris, Cristiano, somehow he felt like it fit the guy really well. It was a lot better than his own name, at least there was no confusion about how to pronounce a name like Cristiano.

Iker looked at Cris one last time before turning back to Isco. This was perfect, getting James and Cris together shouldn’t be a problem at all with his secret weapon. He grabbed his phone and started writing a text message to his secret weapon.

~

Iker waited for someone to open the door. School was over, so he could set his plans in motion. Isco had asked him and James to come over, but Iker came up with an excuse, said he had a project he really wanted to work on, and when Isco started asking questions, Iker just shrugged and said that he just had to wait and see.

The door opened and a lady smiled at him “Oh hi Iker, how nice to see you again, he’s upstairs, waiting for you” she told him.

Iker smiled back and made his way to the room. He opened the door, walked inside and sat down on the bed. “So, Sergio, I need your help” he said.

Sergio turned around in his chair and looked at Iker. “Well hello to you to, cutting right to the chase I see?” he responded.

“It’s important, it’s for my friend” Iker answered.

“Friend? Since when do you have friends?”.

Iker rolled his eyes. “Are you honestly still upset about it?”.

“Yeah, of course I am” Sergio scoffed.

“Oh come on, you can’t keep blaming me for it, you were the one who was constantly touching me, inappropriately too, and you can’t convince me that you didn’t enjoy it, your mouth and body clearly said otherwise” Iker responded as he crossed his arms.

Sergio’s cheeks flushed a bright red as moments of the incident flashed through his mind. “I, that was, I did not touch you inappropriately!” he replied.

“So slapping my ass is appropriate now?” Iker grinned.

“Whatever, just tell me what you want” Sergio growled.

“I need you to team up with me for the next chemistry project” Iker explained calmly.

“No” Sergio immediately responded. He spun his chair back around so his back was facing Iker.

“Yes, you will, you need it too, I’ve seen your chemistry grade, you could use my help” Iker replied.

“Fine, is that all?” Sergio sighed.

“Nope, here’s what else I need you to do” Iker said, as he started explaining his plan.

~

James was starting to panic. He didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know who to ask, and everyone around him was already busy doing their thing. Iker had disappeared and Isco was in a different class, and apart from them he knew no one. He didn’t know if he should stand up and look for Iker or wait for him to come, he didn’t know if he should go to the teacher or wait it out. He couldn’t stop fidgeting with his fingers, and his mind was racing so fast it was making him dizzy. He was sure he was going to panic until he felt an arm on his shoulder.

“Hey” Cris smiled at him. “I don’t have a partner yet, and you seem to be alone as well, would you like to work together?”.

James answered with a bright smile.


	15. Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't suppose to feature Iker and Sergio but now it does because of you

“Great! Come, let’s look for a spot to work” Cris suggested, still smiling at James.

James quickly stood up. He grabbed some pen and paper and then followed Cristiano, who was walking around the classroom, looking for an empty table where they could do the experiments. They had two chemistry hours to do their experiments, and then they had to make a small report outside of those hours, though the fast and smart people, like Iker, would be able to do most of the work at the end of the second hour. The unfortunate thing was that the two hours were separate, they had one chemistry hour today and then the other a few days later.

James spotted Iker with someone he didn’t know, and gave Iker a half glare half smile. Iker wasn’t paying attention though, he was already busy looking through the instructions and telling the other student what to do. They didn’t seem to like each other, and James found himself wondering why Iker teamed up with the guy.

James’ attention was soon brought back to Cris, as he pulled James to an empty table. James blushes slightly at the contact, even though Cristiano was just touching his shirt. The grip on his arm felt nice, Cris wasn’t squeezing too tight, but it wasn’t loose enough that James could easily pull away either. James swore that he felt Cris’ thumb stroke his arm slightly as he let go.

“How about you get all the chemicals we need, and I’ll get the equipment” Cris asked, to which James nodded. Cristiano read all the chemicals they needed, and with that James rushed to the teacher’s desk to get them. Cris’ voice kept running through his mind, which made it very easy to remember what all the chemicals were. James returned with his hands full and everything they needed, but he didn’t have enough hands to put it down on the table. Cris chuckled lightly and took the chemicals from James.

“ You got everything! Great, now let’s see what we have to do” He smiled.

~

Iker was the first one in class to start the experiment. He had set everything up himself, he didn’t trust Sergio to do a proper job, and now he was measuring the chemicals. Sergio sat next to him, his arms crossed, as he just watched. Iker didn’t allow him to touch anything, which Sergio didn’t mind at all. He hated Chemistry, he was terrible at it, and he had completely forgotten why he chose it in the first place. Maybe it had something to do with the teacher he had that would always show cool experiments, half of those included something blowing up, but unfortunately he found out the hard way that Chemistry wasn’t that much fun at all.

Iker handed him a glass with clear substance in it. Sergio stared at it, and then looked at Iker.

“Don’t drink that if you don’t want to go to the hospital” Iker said.

Sergio rolled his eyes. “That just happened once, and it was your fault”.

“Of course, you can pour it in that so it looks like you’re doing something too” Iker answered.

Sergio glared at Iker, but his glare went unnoticed as Iker was already busy writing stuff down and making calculations in his mind.

~

Things were going well, Cris was really nice, he explained things James didn’t understand, but also let him figure some things out himself. The only problem was that James didn’t dare to talk. He wanted to talk, he wanted to talk so badly, but he didn’t know what to say. His mind was just a mix of ‘His smile is amazing’, ‘He smells so nice’, ‘I hope he never stops laughing’, and more of those things. On top of that, James was scared to death to find out what Cristiano would do once he found out James had a terrible stutter. Maybe he’d laugh, maybe he’d make fun of it, maybe he’d tell James to shut up and talk like a normal person, maybe he’d want to change partner, or maybe he would dislike James so much that he’d rather work alone if he couldn’t switch partners.

James stared at the glass that held the mixed chemicals. He let out a sad sigh as more bad scenarios appeared in his mind. He couldn’t stay quiet forever, he had to speak up some time, but would he even be able to form a normal sentence? One that didn’t involve anything about how much he liked Cris.

Cris gently bumped his elbow against James’ arm to gain his attention. “Boring huh? Waiting for something to happen” Cris said when James looked at him.

James smiled in response and nodded. He opened his mouth, but couldn’t even get himself to say a simple ‘yeah’, and so he let out a sigh and closed it again.

“At least everything seems to be going well, maybe we’ll be finished on time so we don’t have to do that much outside of classes, because it’s probably going to be tough to find hours in which we both don’t have classes” Cris spoke, trying to break the silence a little.

James nodded again, still not being able to form any sentence, though his mind was filled with curse words that were directed to himself.

~

Sergio was giving Iker the silent treatment. After Iker made another remark about Sergio, he had turned his back to Iker and refused to say a word. Iker had tried to get Sergio involved in their experiment again, but quickly gave up after a few tries.

He didn’t care that Sergio was ignoring him, it just made things easier for him. He could fully focus on the experiment now. Iker was constantly scribbling in his notebook, trying to take as much work off of his back for after the experiments. He knew fully well that Sergio wouldn’t want to meet him outside of school, and he felt the same way, so the more he could finish during classes, the less he had to do by himself at home.

Sergio looked at the time. He let out a sigh of relief when the hour was almost over. He turned back to Iker to at least make it look like he was doing something, though all he did was stare at what Iker had written down. It was all riddles to him, he didn’t understand a single thing, also because Iker wrote so fast that his handwriting was barely readable. Not like he had to understand, he knew how this would go. Iker would do all the hard work, and then send everything he had to Sergio, so that Sergio could make it look nice, and so they could say that Sergio did some work as well.

Things used to be different, Iker used to explain everything to Sergio, in a way he would actually understand what it was about, but then that happened and Sergio preferred to stay away from Iker as far away as possible. He didn’t need Iker, he had friends of his own, and somehow he still managed to do good enough in school to stay and be able to pass to the next year, and that’s all that mattered to Sergio.


	16. Questioning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say that I am surprised I have been able to post a chapter every week  
> I didn't think I could do it

That lunch time was the first time Isco didn’t immediately started talking. He wanted to, of course, but the moment he saw both of his friends he could tell that something was wrong, and he was fairly sure they weren’t up for his rambling. He figured something must’ve happened during Chemistry class, since they were fine in the morning and that was the only class that morning in which he wasn’t with them. He ended up just eating his food in silence, waiting for either of them to speak up.

James had his hands in his hair, he was constantly sighing, and staring at the table. He had spoken exactly zero words during Chemistry class, all he did was smile and nod. He felt terrible towards Cris, because he had tried to get James to talk several times. He was hoping Cris hadn’t grew tired of him already, he was hoping he’d still be nice to him and talk to him, else he really screwed up badly.

Iker wasn’t frustrated like James was, Iker was fucking annoyed. He had his arms crossed and a frown on his face and he would glare at everyone walking by that looked at him. Everything was going fine right up until the last ten minutes of Chemistry class, he was working fast and precise and he kept notes, and at that pace he would be done with most of the writing by the end of the next class, all he would have to do is word it better and type it out. He had his back turned to the experiment for five seconds, five bloody seconds to check up on James, and somehow Sergio managed to royally fuck up their last experiment of that hour. Now Iker had to do it again, losing precious time he worked so hard for. He still didn’t know what had gotten into Sergio’s head that he just messed around with the chemicals, the only reason he could think of was that Sergio just wanted to see him get mad, but Iker really thought that Sergio was better than that.

Isco found out that he didn’t like eating in silence. He knew he had done it for years and he was perfectly fine with it back when he didn’t have any friends, but now the silence was agonizing. He didn’t even care if he didn’t get to say a word, he didn’t even care if Iker would end up yelling and cursing, he just wanted someone to talk. He was contemplating if he should ask, there was the possibility they wouldn’t answer, but then he could at least say he tried. In the end he decided that the negative things that could happen were better than the silence, and so he spoke up.

“So.. did something happen during Chemistry..?” he asked carefully.

Iker groaned and mumbled angrily, but Isco somehow managed to hear parts of what he was saying. Something about a project and things going wrong, a lot of curse words and a name he didn’t quite catch. It didn’t sound like James’ name, he would’ve known if Iker said that, which caused him to wonder why Iker didn’t team up with James. Surely James didn’t pick someone else to work with, Isco knew James would never do that, he wouldn’t risk being made fun of, so it had to be Iker who picked someone else. Isco tries to think of a reason why Iker would pick someone else, or who would even be willing to work with Iker, since he knew half of the school was scared of him because of his outbursts of anger. He had never seen Iker talk to anyone else, and the only person Iker mentioned from time to time was his crush, but he still hadn’t found a way to contact his crush, plus Isco was sure Iker would know if his crush went to the same school, so it couldn’t have been him.

“.. With who?” Isco eventually continued to ask.

“Sergio” Iker mumbled, “ ‘m his tutor..”.

Isco nodded a bit, that somewhat made sense, though he was surprised this was the first time he heard that name, maybe they didn’t get along that well.

Meanwhile, James was contemplating his entire life. Why didn’t he just talk? How hard was it to just say a few small words? Why didn’t he just think about his words carefully and then said them, that should decrease the chances of him stuttering right? Why didn’t he just whisper it? Why didn’t he write anything down? He could’ve used the excuse that he was still feeling a little sick and that he lost his voice. Why didn’t he think about any of that earlier? It would’ve saved him the guilt he currently felt, plus all the other bad feelings that guilt brought along. Or maybe he should’ve just asked Iker to be his partner before classes, maybe he should just make some sort of pact with Iker and Isco, that whenever they would have to do group projects they would always team up, and maybe if they had a really, really good reason they could pick someone else. Though what if Iker had a really, really good reason?

Iker’s anger was slowly fading away, and his mood went from annoyed to frustrated. He had noticed James’ behaviour, he had noticed the sighs and the hair pulling and the rubbing of the temples, he had noticed it all. Iker started to question himself too, maybe this wasn’t such an amazing plan after all, maybe he should’ve thought about it a bit more before immediately setting it in motion. He had been so happy that he knew a way to get James and Cristiano to meet each other, that he had completely forgotten about how they would talk. He knew Cris was nice and easy going, he knew it wouldn’t be a problem for Cris to spend time with someone he didn’t know and that he would have no problem talking at all, but he had forgotten that James needed more than that. He didn’t think about James stutter because it didn’t bother him at all, he didn’t think about how other people would react to it, he didn’t know or think about how Cris would react to it. Maybe he should’ve waited and helped James with talking to other people, maybe he should’ve made them meet at a party so he could help James and be there for him.

Maybe he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.


	17. Blood

He did it, he did it and he was so proud of himself, even though it was something small and probably not important at all to anyone else, he was very glad he managed to do it.

Isco made James smile.

Not just a small polite smile, but a big one, with a laugh too. He wasn’t even sure how he did it, he just rambled on about whatever came to his mind, but it helped, a lot. James seemed to not be as sad as he was before, he seemed to be doing okay again, and it made Isco really happy. He hated to see his friends sad, he knew that being sad could be a good thing sometimes but he still didn’t like it when his friends were sad. Isco had already dealt with enough sadness.

“W-where’s uh, Where is.. W-.. Iker?” James asked.

That’s when Isco realized that he hadn’t seen Iker at all that lunch break, he was so focused on making James happy that he didn’t notice Iker slip away.

~

Sergio had his arms crossed as he looked at Iker. He didn’t like suddenly getting dragged along to some quiet and empty place, and the fact that it was Iker who did so made it even worse. Iker copied Sergio’s move. It wasn’t to annoy him, he just felt the same way. He wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t very, very important.

“Did he say anything?” Iker asked.

“Did who say anything?” Sergio responded as he rolled his eyes.

Iker groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had to keep himself calm, yelling wasn’t going to get him anywhere. “Did Cris say anything about Chemistry?”.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself” Sergio sneered.

Iker sighed, why did Sergio had to be so fucking stubborn, if he could just co-operate for fuck’s sake so that they could move on from this quickly. “You know I can’t ask him”.

Sergio just shrugged.

“Come on man, it’s for my fucking friend!”. Iker was definitely starting to lose his patience.

“Is it really though? Because I’m getting the idea you just made up this whole thing so you could be close to me again, but that’s not gonna happen!” Sergio snapped back.

“Are you really that fucking selfish?! I don’t fucking want to get in your goddamn pants!”.

“Shut up! This is all your fault!”.

“My fucking fault?”. Iker took a few deep breaths through his nose to try and calm himself down again. He had to keep his voice down, he didn’t want the whole school to come running to them to watch them fight. “Alright, maybe I was lonely, maybe I was missing someone and tried to push them out of my mind by finding someone else, but this is your fault too, I would have never done it if you wouldn’t have been touching me like that!” he exclaimed.

Before Iker knew what hit him, he was on the ground and his nose hurt. The world was a little fuzzy and he had a hard time figuring out what just happened. All that he saw was someone walking away from him while they were shaking their hand slightly.

~

James immediately got up when he spotted Iker. He ran to him and grabbed his arm, then guided him to the table Isco and him had claimed. Isco looked up, and when he saw Iker he gasped lightly.

“Iker what happened? Your nose is bleeding! Are you alright?” Isco barely gave Iker the chance to talk, as he had already grabbed a tissue and wiped the blood away from under his nose, and then continued with his questions. “Where were you? We were worried about you! Why didn’t you tell us where you went? We could’ve helped you”.

James tugged on Isco’s arm, signalling him to shut up, and after asking a few more things he did. Isco carefully touched Iker’s nose, and Iker hissed in response.

“ ‘m alright, I was just, yeah” Iker mumbled.

“Please don’t scare us like that anymore, just take it easy for today okay? Maybe go home early if you still feel dizzy after the next hour” Isco said, and gave Iker some water.

Iker smiled, drank it, and then handed it back. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine”.

~

A few days later Iker and James had Chemistry class again. James was playing with his fingers as they made their way to the classroom. He was very nervous, he had no idea what Cristiano would react today. He thought about asking the teacher if he could switch and team up with Iker, he thought about asking Iker, but he wasn’t sure if it was exactly what he wanted. Even though he and Cris didn’t talk and he felt terrible for it, it was still nice to work with him, Cris had made him laugh and smile and it made James feel really good, and he’d like to feel that way again.

His nerves calmed down somewhat when Cristiano smiled at him as they walked into the room.

However, things went exactly the same as last time. Cris tried to get James to talk, but all James could do was smile and nod. He was getting worried again, he was getting really nervous, and it caused him to mess up a few times. Luckily Cris was there to save and stop him most of the times, and their experiment was still going the right way, but James’ luck soon ran out.

James held up the glass to see if he had put enough chemicals in it, when it slipped from his hand and fell. James’ reflexes kicked in and he tried to grab it before it hit the table, but by the time his hand had reached it, it was already broken. James bit his lip and stared at the broken glass, he was very lucky the chemical that was inside was harmless, but it didn’t make him feel any less stupid.

“Your hand!” Cris stated, and before James had time to look what was going on, Cris had grabbed his wrist and was dragging him along.

Cris explained to the teacher what happened, and the teacher allowed them to leave. James was dragged through the halls of the school, he had no idea where he was going, and how Cris figured out his name, as he surely couldn’t have told him. They stopped at a door with a red cross on it and Cris knocked on the door. He once again explained what had happened, and the woman inside the small room ordered James to sit on the bed as she bandaged his hand. He got a quick look at his hand, and it was covered in blood. He prayed it wasn’t anything bad, because he didn’t want to come home from the hospital a second time within a year.

The school nurse had left them alone, and Cris had sat down in the only chair in the room. He looked up at James, who was staring at his hand. “Are you okay?” Cris asked.

James looked up and nodded, he gave a small smile as well as reassurance.

Cris smiled back. “Good, and just so you know, it didn’t look that deep, I think you’ll be fine soon”.

James bit his lip and opened his mouth. “Th.. Th-th.. uh, th… Th” James stuttered. He tried so hard to get the words out of his mouth, but he just couldn’t. He felt so frustrated, how could it be so hard to just get one word out of his mouth? His eyes started to tear up as he kept trying, but still failed to get anything more than those two letters out of his mouth. He stopped trying when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, relax okay? Take a few deep breaths, think about what you want to say, and then try again” Cris explained with a smile.

James nodded and did what he said, he took a deep breath in, and then let it out again, and did that a few more times. He looked up at Cris and then tried again. “Th-tha-thank y-y-you f.. uh.. f-for co.. com.. coming w-w-w.. w-with m.. m-m… ugh.. me” he finally managed to get out of his mouth.

“No problem at all, I have to make sure my partner’s alright” Cris smiled at him.

James smiled back, he suddenly felt a lot more at ease.

~

Iker had seen James and Cris leave, he had seen the blood on James’ hand, and he was really worried. It was a miracle how he still managed to focus on the experiment and not mess up, while he was freaking out inside.

Sergio had noticed, he knew Iker wasn’t doing okay, no matter how good he was at hiding it. He awkwardly cleared his throat and spoke up. “Uh, Cris said.. During lunch break he talked about your friend.. Cris said that he seemed nice and that he wanted to try and get him to talk again, he said he liked the kid..”.

Iker stared at Sergio. He wasn’t sure what just happened, but he guessed Sergio just apologized in his own way. Iker wasn’t sure how to react to it, but he ended up giving Sergio a small smile. “Alright, thanks”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry Sergio is so mean


	18. Rainbow

James walked back in the classroom with a big smile on his face. Iker figured something great must’ve happened, because no one would smile like that after cutting their hand. He watched James turn to Cris and speak, it looked like he had a lot of trouble to get the words out of his mouth, but Cris was smiling at him. Iker smiled to himself as he watched how his plan worked out after all. After James and Cris went back to their spot, Iker turned back to the experiment, finally he didn’t have to worry anymore, and could fully focus on getting him and Sergio a good grade.

Sergio was more co-operative after his ‘apology’. He tried to get more involved so that he could understand Chemistry better and maybe get a good grade by himself. He constantly asked Iker questions about the experiment, and Iker answered patiently. Iker also let Sergio figure out what to do a few times, with Sergio not messing up even once, though sometimes it took a few hints from Iker before he got to the right answer. Sergio also was trying to figure out how many questions it took for Iker to get annoyed, but unfortunately Iker was in a good mood and so nothing happened.

“So, I’ll just make the final calculations and then send it all to you, is that alright with you? Or do you want to do some more?” Iker asked once they finished up the final experiment.

Sergio shrugged. “I think it’s better if you do it, like you said, I need a good grade”.

Iker nodded in response. He was glad things between them were normal again, it meant he may be able to ask for some more favours in the future, and with actual friends he cared a lot about, he felt like he’d be needing a lot more favours than before.

~

James and Cris were lagging behind on their experiments. Most students had finished and were cleaning everything up, while they still had to do some work. Cris watched the time as they waited for the chemicals to mix.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to finish everything, we should ask the teacher if we can have some extra time because of your hand” he said, looking at James.

James looked back and nodded. “C-can yo-you a.. uh.. y-yeah, a-a-ask t-the tea-eacher?” he asked.

“Sure, of course I can do that” Cris answered with a smile.

Cris’ smile automatically made James smile too. The half smirks were the worst, they made James’ cheek heat up, and he desperately hoped no one noticed it. He was also surprised Cris hadn’t brought up his stutter yet, he still hated how he was more nervous and thus stuttered a lot more around Cris, but even when it took him several tries to just get one word out of his mouth, Cris smiled and waited patiently for him to finish.

At the end of class, Cris dragged James with him to the teacher. James wasn’t sure why he wanted him to be there as well, he was almost scared Cris was going to make him talk. However, as promised, Cris explained the teacher that they simply couldn’t have finished the experiments in time because of James’ injury, and he politely asked for extra time. The teacher agreed, but they’d have to come back outside of classes. Cris suggested to do it today after school, the sooner the better.

~

Isco burst into laughter as his two friends approached him. James gave him a weird look and Iker just shook his head.

“What’s so funny?” he asked after Isco wouldn’t stop.

“Ah, it’s just, again, after Chemistry you have the exact same expression, last time you were both, well, kind of sad, and now you’re both smiling from ear to ear, it’s just funny how this is the second time after the same class you know? It doesn’t ha-“ Isco explained before being cut off by Iker.

“Alright, we get it, you weirdo” Iker smiled.

Isco smiled and then leaned forward. “So how did it go? What happened that you’re both smiling? Is everything sunshine and rainbows? And why is everything sunshine and rainbows?” he asked as he rested his chin on his palms.

“Things just, went well” Iker responded, and James chuckled.

“Oh come on, tell me more! I want to know what happened!” Isco whined. “Pretty please?”.

“I’ll te- uh, I’ll text, no, tell you, ugh, I’ll text it, to you, once, uhm, after scho- when we- I, am home” James replied, and then quickly grabbed his bag so he could hide his blush from his friends.

~

James ran through the halls of the school. He had talked a little too long with Iker and Isco, trying to explain why he had to stay a little longer at school, and now he was late. He really hoped Cristiano would forgive him for it, he couldn’t afford making more bad impressions on his crush.

To his surprise, everything had already been set up when he walked into the room. He stared at Cris who just smiled at him. James smiled back, and quickly dropped his bag so that they could start the remaining experiments. They worked together really well, without classmates that could laugh at him, James felt much more at ease, and so he worked a lot quicker and better. He was also talking more, not a whole lot more like Isco, and he was still stuttering a lot, but he was still talking more and it made him feel good.

“Hey, want to see a cool trick” Cris suddenly said.

James stared at him, a little surprised, and then nodded. He had no idea what Cris was going to show him, and he hoped it involved nothing dangerous.

Cris stood up and grabbed a few chemicals. He put them down on the table and poured a few of them in a glass. James watched him, unsure of what to do or say, when Cris started to smile.

“Look, you see how it’s blue now?” Cris said.

James nodded. He didn’t quite understand what was going on, was this the trick? He knew some chemicals would change colour when mixed with others, everyone knew that. Cris added a different chemical, and the substance changed to a different colour. He did it a few more times and then proudly smiled at James.

James bit his lip, and then started to giggle. The way Cristiano smiled at him was so cute, like a little kid showing off a magic trick. He had to admit that the chemicals turning into every colour of the rainbow was fun to see, even though he expected more of it, but watching Cris smile was by far the best part of the trick.

“I knew you’d like it” Cris said as his smile grew bigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the lame ways I put the chapter title into the story I didn't know what else to do


	19. Grey

Their partnership was over. After visiting Cristiano’s house to work on the writing part of the project together, they were finished. Before James left the house, Cris had told him he enjoyed working together, and that was the last time the two of them really spoke to each other. Sure, there was the occasional ‘Hi how are you’ in between classes when they saw each other, but that was it. There were no more silly tricks or videos from Cris that made James laugh, just from the sheer silliness, no more pats on the shoulder when James did good.

Cris would still smile at him when they happen to bump into each other, but James craved more. He had seen that smile plenty while working together, so getting it at random moments wasn’t that special anymore. Sure they still made James feel really nice, they still made his stomach feel weird in a good way, but it just wasn’t enough for James. He wanted the talking and the laughing and the touches too.

James spend most of the time during lunch just staring at Cris. He always managed to find him if he was in the room, Cris stood out to him. He barely listened to what Iker and Isco had to say, he just stared and longed for more contact.

He wasn’t necessarily sad about it, well in a way he was, but he wasn’t constantly sad about it. Somehow the thing he felt the most was, indifferent. He didn’t care about things as much as he used to, it was like someone drained all the colour out of his life. He still cared for his friends of course, and as long as his mind wasn’t set on Cristiano, he was fine, but the problem was that Cris went through his mind an awful lot. It was even worse when he was doing something, and then thought about what it would be like if Cris joined him, it would instantly make the thing less fun, boring almost. He felt that a lot too, boredom, because nothing satisfied him enough to fill the empty space that Cris created when they finished their project.

Sometimes he would feel stupid about it. He felt stupid that one stupid person could affect his stupid emotions so much. It was stupid how someone could drain all the fun out of everything simply by not being there. He felt as if he was overreacting, but he wasn’t sure because he had never liked someone, he had never had any similar feelings so he had nothing to compare it to. Even if he was overreacting, he had no idea how to stop overreacting.

Iker and Isco noticed, of course they noticed, they also knew exactly what was going on. They had seen him looking at Cris, he wasn’t exactly subtle about the staring so it was easy to figure out what the problem was. To find a solution, that was going to be a problem.

Iker had been thinking about what he could do, he had been thinking about how Sergio could maybe help him, but he couldn’t come up with a good plan. No plan was subtle enough to get James and Cris together without asking them to be together, there was no way to bring them together with a good excuse, there was just nothing.

“We need to do something Iker, I can’t stand seeing him like that any longer, the fact that we can talk about it openly without him even reacting proves how bad it is, I mean look at him, he just keeps staring, he doesn’t even realize I’m talking about him!” Isco complained, he even waved his hand in front of James’ face to emphasize his point.

Iker sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “I know, I’m trying to think of something, but it’s not working”.

“Can’t you ask that friend of yours, uhm, Sergio right? Yeah can’t you ask him to get Cris to ask James to come over or something, or maybe you should tell him James’ phone number so he can give it to Cris” Isco suggested.

Iker shook his head. “I can’t just do that, it would be weird, we have to think of something that doesn’t involve us speaking for him” he explained.

“Why not? It seems to be the only way we can get them together, you saw how happy they looked together, we can’t let that go to waste, we have to do something about it! We have to help them, we can’t let this ship sink!” Isco responded. He could tell, even without seeing the two interacting, that James made Cris happy, and that it was the same the other way around. The vibe he got from the two was slightly familiar, it was something he hadn’t felt for years.

“I know! I’m thinking! But I- I’m no genius!” Iker yelled in frustration.

“Don’t say that, you’re the smartest person I know, I’m sure you can think of something” Isco said, and then he went quiet. Sometimes his rambling was bad, and he’d blurt out things he didn’t mean, or he’d accidentally make them come out in a wrong way, and this was one of those times. “Sorry.. I didn’t.. It was out before I realized..” he muttered.

“It’s alright, I know, I just need you to be quiet so I can think, okay” Iker answered.

Isco nodded, and kept his lips pressed together. He knew Iker would eventually come up with something, but he didn’t know how long it would take, and he also didn’t know how long it would take for Cris to give up on becoming friends with James. He also didn’t want to see James so, emotionless for a day longer, and so he told himself that he would give Iker a couple of days to come up with a good plan. If he couldn’t, he’d just walk up to Cris himself and give him James’ phone number, or maybe ask his for James, or maybe even do both. Whatever it would take for the two of them to start talking again.

Isco realized that there was a chance that James would eventually hang out with him and Iker less to spend more time with Cris, he even knew that it was possible that James wouldn’t even have time for them at all, but he liked the thought of that a lot better than having to spend every day around another person filled with regrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I googled the word Grey and Wiki said that people associate Grey with boredom and indifference, so I used those themes


	20. Fortitude

Something weird was going on. For the first time, or at least, for the first time James could remember, his mother was nice that morning. Normally she’d complain about work, or James, whatever annoyed her more, but this time she didn’t. This time she even said his hair looked nice. James had no idea what was going on, but he just accepted the compliment with a ‘thank you’ as he chewed on his breakfast. She left soon after, so she didn’t have much time to say anything else, but it was still weird to James. She rarely even gave him compliments, she was always too busy with herself to notice James did good, so it was really, really weird that today she was different.

James quickly shrugged it off, maybe she was just in a very good mood, or aliens replaced her with a new, nicer version of her. He didn’t spend too much thought on it, as his mind wasted no time on drifting off to think about his crush, and if said crush was just nice to him or actually liked him.

The night before, James had been laying in his bed thinking that something had to change. He knew that for the past few days he had been more quiet and distant to his friends and he hated that, he needed it to change, but the only way he could change is was by interacting with Cristiano more. The only way he could talk to Cris more was to go up to him and talk, and that was something James definitely wasn’t looking forward to. He knew that Cris would be nice to him, but his friends were always around him and he didn’t know how his friends would react. Plus the thought of just walking up to Cris and say hi terrified him, he didn’t know exactly why but it was a very scary thing to do and so he preferred not to do it. Only problem was, he had to.

So once again, during lunch time, he was quiet, but this time it was for a different reason. He was very busy with figuring out what to do and what to say if he decided to talk to Cris. Maybe he could ask Isco or Iker to come along, or maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. They could be scared at Iker because of his reputation, he had seen the way people reacted to Iker, most preferred to stay out of the way, while others would poke him for fun, just to get him to yell. Isco probably wouldn’t be much help either, as he still closed up when unknown people talked to him, he barely even said a word to the teachers, he wouldn’t be surprised if Isco ended up hiding behind James when he’d go to Cris.

James was so lost in thoughts that during one of his classes, he didn’t notice the teacher saying his name, multiple times. He didn’t look up until Isco pinched his side, he blushed slightly as everyone was staring at him.

“I hope you’re thinking about Philosophy mister Rodríguez, though I can only assume you are, since you have the highest grade for the latest test, well done” The teacher spoke with a smile.

James’ mouth hung open as he started at his teacher. He, the highest grade? The mess that was his mind actually worked the way it should and gave him this miracle? He really couldn’t believe it, something weird must’ve been going on that day. Maybe he was just dreaming, yes, it had to be a dream, because there was no way he could have this much luck in just one day.

Perhaps this was his lucky day. He wasn’t sure if such a thing actually existed, but he had no other logical explanation for what was going on. The weirdest thing was that he had other small fortunes as well that day. He got extra candy out of the vending machine, when he went to copy something he didn’t have to pay at all, it was starting to scare him a little.

By the time lunch break had started again, he figured that the only way to truly find out if it was his lucky day, was to just walk up to Cris. No thinking about what he’d say, no Iker or Isco coming with him as support, no waiting until Cris was alone. Just straight up walk to him and talk, and if that worked out, then such a thing as a ‘lucky day’ actually existed. James had such a good feeling about it that he didn’t even think about what could go wrong, he had gotten such a confidence boost that he just knew it was going to work.

So, after spotting Cris, James excused himself and stood up. Isco and Iker stared at him, unsure what he was about to do. He had been acting weird all day, but, in a good way. He didn’t seem sad anymore, just very lost in thought, and that was a lot better than him not caring about anything. They watched him head into Cris’ direction, and Isco’s eyes widened.

“D- Do you think he’s going to Cris? Is he actually going to talk to Cris all by himself? Without us having to push him?” Isco asked, his face holding a baffled expression.

“It sure looks like it” Iker answered. He could barely believe his eyes. Shy stuttering James just walking up to his crush like it was nothing.

Cris had noticed James too and smiled at him. His friends had stopped talking once they noticed that Cris’ attention was elsewhere, and they all looked to see where it went. James smiled back, stopped in front of Cris and opened his mouth.

“Hi” he simply said.

“Hey” Cris answered smiling. “How are you doing?”.

“Good, and uh, you?” James asked.

“I’m also good, is there something you need or did you came to talk or..?” Cris replied. You could say that James had surprised him, he thought James would be a quiet shy boy, but this definitely wasn’t something a shy, quiet boy would do.

“I.. uh.. “ James trailed off. He wasn’t sure what he wanted, yeah he wanted to talk, but he wasn’t sure what to say, and at the same time he didn’t want to leave Iker and Isco alone for the rest of the lunch break. “Can I uhm, Can I have your mo- yeah, your phone number?” he asked. It was out of his mouth before he had really given it a thought.

“Yeah, sure” Cris responded. He grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled a few numbers onto it. His friends were all dead quiet, staring at what was happening before them, they’d seen plenty of girls walk up to Cris and ask for his number, and he always politely refused, but now this new kid did the same and Cris happily gave him what he wanted.

James smiled wide as Cris handed over the number. “Thanks!” he giggled, and then walked back to his own friends.

“I think I need to get my glasses checked, because I cannot believe my eyes! Did you just really give him your number?” one of his friends spoke.

Cris smiled and shrugged. “Yeah Marcelo, I did, it’s not a big deal” he answered.

“But you never just give people your phone number” a different friend said.

“Guys come on, don’t exaggerate” Cris replied.

“But Pepe is right!” Marcelo exclaimed.

“I don’t get it, I give my phone number away all the time” the last friend stated.

“You’re not Cris though Fábio, it’s different” Marcelo explained as he let out a sigh.

“I still don’t get it” Fábio said.

Cris smiled as Marcelo let out a groan, he could always count on Fábio to take the attention away from him when he wanted to, even though his friend never realized it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, 20 chapters already, that means I'm 1/5th through this thing  
> Also I'm very sorry I tried to replicate Fàbio's character, you know, pretty.. dumb, but to the point where you can only laugh about it because it's Fàbio and it's adorable, and I hope I didn't fuck it up  
> Edit: I changed one little word I forgot to change before posting it


	21. Vacation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's possible that there will be only one chapter per week for a little while, because I'm watching the WWC and Copa América (not everything, but still a fair amount of matches)  
> But maybe it'll also cause me to write sooner, I don't know, just letting you know that I'll be a little busier the next month or so

It was a good thing James asked for Cris’ phone number when he did, because vacation was around the corner, and that meant a full week without seeing or talking to Cris at all. James was really glad he now at least had a way to contact Cris, because he had no idea how he was going to survive without it, he already felt bad not being able to talk to him a lot, he didn’t want to imagine what it would turn into if he couldn’t talk to him at all.

Iker and Isco wasted no time in getting James to actually talk to Cris, getting a phone number was one thing, making contact was another, and the two of them were fairly sure that making contact was very difficult for James. At first James didn’t like it at all, but as the last day of school was over and he was home in his room, he was glad they did so, because now he was able to talk to Cristiano without much trouble. 

-Hey-

-Hey you, looking forward to a week off?-

-Yeah definitely, school gets really tiring-

-Haha I know, do you have anything planned?-

-Not really, my friends asked me to go swimming with them tomorrow, but that’s the only thing I have planned, what about you?-

-Me and my sister are going to visit some family, we’re leaving tomorrow and coming back on Friday-

-Sounds nice-

-It’s alright, I don’t like my family that much, but I only see them a few times a year so then it’s all good, and I’m excited to see a few of them-

-Good, I hope you’ll have fun, will you have wifi there?-

-Yup, no worries sunshine, we’ll still be able to talk, I’ll just be away from time to time because my family likes going out-

James blushed at the nickname, he had no idea why Cris called him that, if it was just to mock him or because of something else, but he decided to keep his mouth shut about it.

-Okay good, I don’t think I’ll do a whole lot this week so-

-You should, go out, have some fun, enjoy your free time as much as you can-

James stared at his phone, perhaps he should do more than just sit at home and watch Netflix all day. Sure Netflix was fun but it just couldn’t beat having fun with Isco and Iker. Maybe he’d ask if they could just play games at Isco’s a few times, or if they had any ideas of what they could themselves.

~

James had his arms crossed in front of his chest as he watched the people in the pool. It was crowded, which was to be expected during vacation of course, but there were still a lot more people than he expected. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, he felt quite nervous being so exposed around so many people, plus it had been ages since he last went to the pool.

Isco creeped up behind James and then ruffled his hair. James jumped a little but smiled when he saw it was just his silly friend. Iker put his arm around James’ shoulder and looked around as well.

“This is your last chance to back out” Iker said as he turned his head to James.

James shook his head, yeah he was nervous, but he also knew that nothing bad could happen with his friends around him. He was sure that if anyone would try to make fun of him, Iker would make sure they would never dare to come near him again. Isco wouldn’t be much help in keeping people away, but he was great at keeping James’ attention away from his surroundings, away from anyone that might try and make fun of him from a distance.

Isco started tugging on James’ arm, trying to pull him into the water, but James barely budged. He was lucky that Isco wasn’t very strong, so it didn’t take him a lot of strength to stand his ground. However, Iker was a lot stronger than the two of them, and so it was very easy for him to wrap his arms around Isco’s waste, pick him up, and throw him into the water. James laughed at Isco’s face, it was some sort of angry pout directed to Iker. Iker grinned, and then looked at James again.

“Are you gonna jump in yourself or do you need some help?” he asked.

James didn’t waste any time in jumping into the water, and Iker followed soon after. Isco jumped on James’ back, causing him to fall forward into the water. Iker pulled Isco off of James’ back and chuckled.

“Be a little careful with your friend” he spoke to Isco, who responded with a pout.

They soon moved on to the deeper pools, and James had to get used to keeping himself afloat again. Iker offered to help him out, but James refused. He could swim, it just had been a while, and so his movements were a bit awkward. Isco seemed to be doing just fine in the water, he had already gotten them some floating objects to mess with and was swimming around and underneath his two friends.

James ended up sitting on the square mat that Isco had gotten them, and watched his friends mess around. It was the first time that day he was able to have a good look at his friends. It was different, seeing them without clothes, because clothes hid their physical appearance a lot. Isco was small, the smallest of the three, and he was fairly skinny too. Isco and James were about the same built, as James didn’t really have muscles either. Iker was a whole different story, Iker was a little bit taller than James, but his muscles were definitely visible. His legs and shoulders being the most muscled. James was fairly sure that Iker played sports, he just wasn’t sure what kind of sport. It had to be a sport with a lot of running, maybe hockey, but James wasn’t sure if carrying around a hockey stick would give someone shoulders like that.

James was just about to wonder what Cristiano’s body would look like, when he got pulled into the water by his legs. He saw Isco snicker as he rose above water again.

“Come on, have some fun with us, don’t just sit there and stare, there’s lots of things we can do together! If you want we could go back to less deep water, so you can stand, so we can mess around with a ball maybe, I don’t know, you tell me” Isco smiled.

James thought for a few seconds before opening his mouth. “Yeah, let-.. let’s uh, b..ball, let’s do that” he answered.


	22. Mother Nature

After asking Iker if he knew any other things they could do, since playing games all day was something James could only do a few times per month before it got boring, Iker suggested they’d walk around the forest. He said he liked to do it when he needed to clear his head, because it was quiet, no one would bother them, and the forest just gave him a peaceful feeling. Isco objected, said it would be boring, and used some other vague excuses that didn’t really make a lot of sense to James, but since James did like the idea, and Isco didn’t want to be left out, he eventually agreed to come along.

And so a few days later Iker and James were waiting at the edge of the forest for their other friend. Iker said that he could easily pick Isco up and have him drive with them to the forest, but for some reason Isco turned pale simply at the suggestion of being in a car. Iker assured him he’d drive safely, that he had never gotten in an accident before and had driven often enough to know exactly what he was doing and where he had to look out for, but it wasn’t enough to convince Isco. He ended up taking the bus, James found it weird that taking the bus apparently was better than driving along with a friend to Isco, and walked the last bit.

Isco waved at his friends when he spotted them, and ran to them. He had a backpack on his back, and James was wondering what was in it.

“See, I told you this would work out just fine, the bus was just a little late so that’s why I’m a little late as well, but apart from that everything is fine” Isco said when he stopped in front of Iker and James.

“I still don’t understand what’s so bad about coming with me” Iker said, and looked at Isco as if he was expecting an answer, but Isco just smiled at him. “Anyway” he continued, “I brought a ball with me in case one of us gets bored” he looked at Isco again, “and there’s a playground we can go to, but we can also just wander around the forest, the choice is up to you”.

“I think uh, M-maybe it’d be.. best.. to.. No.. let’s just go to.. to the playground” James answered.

“Sounds like a great plan! Is it a big playground? Are there swings? I hope they are. Is it like, in an open field or is there a swing hanging from a tree and a little treehouse and all of that? And is it wood or not?” Isco asked.

Iker chuckled lightly. “You’ll see, now, if there’s something you want to save for later you can leave it in my car, else we’ll go” he suggested.

“Nope, I’m good, let’s go!” Isco responded.

With that, the three friends started walking through the forest. Iker walked up front, but Isco and James followed close behind. They mainly followed the road, a straight sandy road with only trees surrounding it, but James was fine with that, at least he definitely couldn’t get lost right now. Getting lost on a straight road had to be a real achievement, James didn’t want to find out if it was possible though. Isco ended up enjoying himself a whole lot more than he expected, he’d often walk along the side of the road to pick up nice looking sticks. If he’d found a better one he’d throw the old one away. After a while he found one that was shaped like a Y and stopped looking for a different one.

Iker would sometimes speak up and say something he once did there, or he’d mention how beautiful the path would look sometimes, but the three of them mainly stayed quiet, enjoying the sounds of the forest, the fresh air, and constantly walking in the shadows of the big trees. It was all so calming, it completely drained James from all his worries. He made a mental note to ask Iker to go here whenever he’d feel really stressed, he was sure it would help him out a lot.

After some walking Iker had thrown the ball ahead of him and kicked it forward whenever it touched his feet. Isco had been watching Iker barely pay attention to the ball as he took it with him, and suddenly something clicked in his mind. He was about to open his mouth and ask Iker something when Iker spoke up.

“We’re almost there, you see that turn up ahead? It’s right past that” he said, smiling at his friends.

“ ‘snot that, that uh, far away” James replied.

“I know, It’s great, it’s far away enough to not hear noises from outside the forest, but nearby enough to walk to it from the edge of the forest” Iker explained.

The playground was fairly big, there were some things for little kids to play with, like a wooden train, a wooden seesaw, and a wooden swing, but there were also some climbable trees, a simple wigwam, and lots of other things for older kids. Behind all of that was a big open field, with a goal on either side.

“Let’s go play football!” Isco immediately yelled, making James and Iker chuckle. “Because, well we brought a ball along right? So then why not, and I want to see what you can do Iker, I’ve seen you kick that ball, you must be a footballer!” he continued excitingly.

“I didn’t think you’d notice after we played Fifa for the first time” Iker smiled.

“Oh come on I may be a little stupid sometimes but I’m not that stupid, plus I was focusing on the game so that’s why I didn’t notice before!” Isco responded in defence.

They walked to the field, Iker suggested he’d be the keeper, and James and Isco could both try to score against him. If they wanted to team up or go up against each other was their choice, but the goal scorer would switch places with the keeper. Isco and James both agreed, thinking scoring should be fairly easy, but they were terribly wrong. Even after they teamed up Iker still managed to block every attempt they made. Now they weren’t the best footballers of course, half of the time their passes were terrible, or they missed the goal by a lot, but they definitely expected that getting the ball in the goal wouldn’t be that hard.

They had fun though, laughing at each other’s failed attempts, clapping when Iker made an impressive save, also because that meant one of them made a decent shot, and groaning whenever Iker would kick the ball to the other side of the field, so they’d have to run after it. Iker really enjoyed being able to take it easy for a change, usually standing in the goal for him meant working his ass off. He didn’t mind it though, football, and especially being the keeper, was one of his biggest passions, and he would never give it up for anything in the world.


	23. Cat

Iker ate his sandwich as fast as he could. His parents were at it again and this time he didn’t feel like being in the house when it happened, but he had to eat something before leaving the house. He grabbed his shoes and put them on with one hand, the other still holding his unfinished sandwich, and then grabbed his coat. He held the sandwich in his mouth as he tied his shoelaces and closed his jacket, and then opened the fridge to quickly get himself a glass of milk. He looked at his car keys, contemplating if he should drive off somewhere or just go for a walk. Once he finished his sandwich, he walked out of the house, deciding that it was better for today.

Isco had told them that he was doing something with his dad, and so would be unavailable for the day, and that automatically meant they couldn’t go to his house either. Iker and James hadn’t figured out what to do together yet, and so no plans had been made yet. So Iker figured that walking would be better in case James texted him with a plan, because firstly, he wouldn’t be able to get very far on foot, and secondly, if he was somewhat far away, he could always take the bus. On top of that, the weather was nice, and Iker thought some fresh air would be good, and you can’t really get much fresh air in a car.

At first he just wandered around the neighbourhood. He didn’t really know where to go or what to do, so he just walked around in circles, hoping he’d come up with something. He passed a local park a few times, where they had a small football area for kids to play, and he thought about maybe grabbing his own ball and practice a bit, but then realized that practicing goal keeper things by yourself never really helped that much. He could ask people to help of course, but he also had some sort of a reputation in his neighbourhood. Sure they knew that he was good at football, but they also knew about his parents, and so everyone was sure he had to be the same way, he had to be some sex-crazed-maniac as well, and no one wanted to associate with someone like that.

He didn’t mind it that much, he had gotten used to being alone, and anything was better than people constantly looking at you and judging you. He had a few people that didn’t mind being around him, though he could count them on one hand and the number was slowly decreasing as well. If only James and Isco lived somewhat closer, within walking distance, then it would be a lot easier to do things with them, to get at least one of them to get better at football so he could practice more. Iker already practiced a few times a week at his club, with his team, but he wanted to do it more often, he needed to. He had to become better if he wanted his dream to come true.

Iker stopped walking when he heard a strange noise. He looked around himself to find that there was no one around. He figured someone was probably just messing with him, someone who heard about his bad temper and who wanted to laugh at him getting angry and throwing all sorts of colourful swear words at them. He really had to stop doing that, stop giving those people what they wanted, but it was so hard to control his anger. Sure he managed to calm himself down a few times when he was with James and Isco, but he wasn’t even sure how he did that.

He looked up again when the noise had returned. Again there was no one in his sight that could’ve made it, but this time he recognized the sound. It was a cat’s meow, and at that moment Iker realized that there were some stray cats wandering around his neighbourhood. He took one more look around himself, to see if he could spot the cat, but the cat was hidden well, and so Iker just started walking again.

It wasn’t long before the cat made some noise again, but this time it was closer, and when Iker looked around he found the cat sitting behind him, watching him. Iker looked back, unsure what to do. He never had pets, sure he interacted with cats and dogs and the likes before but this was a stray cat. People always said to be careful because they could be unpredictable and mean, but this one seemed nice. The cat meowed again, but softer this time, as if it was saying hello. Iker kneeled down, holding his hand out a bit to the cat. To his surprise, the cat actually walked up to him. It sniffed his hand at first, Iker stayed still to not surprise the cat, and then rubbed it’s head against Iker’s hand. Iker watched in amazement, it was weird for him to get affection out of nowhere like that. He did nothing nice to the cat, and yet it was nice to him.

The cat meowed again and nudged it’s head against his hand. Iker stared again, but when the cat let out another meow he gently scratched the cat’s chin. The cat immediately started to purr, and Iker felt, well he actually felt flattered. A smile appeared on his face as he kept petting the cat, he was really starting to enjoy himself, and the cat seemed to be enjoying it too.

After a while Iker’s arm started to hurt, and so he petted the cat one last time before getting up. He looked at the time and decided that it was time to go home. He smiled at the cat, who was watching him, and turned around as he started walking. He felt kind of bad, he wouldn’t mind spending more time with the cat, he was sure the cat would like that too, Iker imagined not a lot of people would just stop and pet it.

Iker walked for a while, until he heard a meow again. He looked behind himself to find that the cat had been following him. Iker chuckled to himself and then moved on again, but when it meowed a few more times, while still following him, Iker stopped and turned to the cat again.

“What do you want from me? I can’t keep petting you all day. I liked it, I like you, and I’m sure you liked it too, but I just can’t pet you all day” he spoke to the cat.

The cat meowed, as if it was trying to speak as well, and then stared at Iker again. Iker didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what the cat wanted, it would come in very handy right now if there was some way to communicate with it. Iker kept staring at the cat as he tried to think of what the cat wanted. Maybe it wanted food, but Iker didn’t have any with him and he was fairly sure the cat would be able to smell that. Maybe the cat did just want more affection, though he always thought that stray cats preferred to stay away from people and didn’t want much attention from people. The last thing that Iker came up with is that maybe this cat wanted to come with him.

He started to wonder if this actually was a stray cat. The cat’s fur looked decent, unlike with most stray cats, plus it’s fur pattern was uncommon for a stray cat. He didn’t see a collar though, but that didn’t meant much. Iker figured he’d just take the cat to the vet to check if it had a chip, and if not, then maybe he could adopt it. It’s not like his parents would notice, and he knew how to manage his parents’ money so that wasn’t going to be a problem either. The only bad thing that could happen was that in the end the cat just wasn’t fit to be a pet, but Iker was willing to take that risk if it meant that he could possibly get a new friend to keep him company every day.


	24. No time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that it's a little later than usual, I already explained that because of the Women's World Cup and Copa América I've just been more busy at night, but lately writing has gotten less.. satisfying, and so it's a little harder to get myself to keep writing  
> I have every intention to finish this though, I will still try to stick to at least one per week, and I'll try to ask for help to keep me motivated here and there  
> I know why it's happening, it's a few chapters not being as good as I'd like them to be and then depression immediately kicks in and tries to convince me that it all sucks and I should just quit, but like I said, I will keep trying to write this for as long as I can, I really do want to write something for all of the 100 words on my list

James had helped out Iker throughout the rest of the vacation, except for the last day, that day was specially reserved for something he was really looking forward to.

Iker called James, out of the blue, to ask him if he wanted to help his friend with taking care of his new cat. James had no idea why Iker suddenly got a cat or how it happened, and even after Iker explained how he ended up getting the cat he still didn’t understand it. Yeah cats were cool, but James really preferred dogs better.

Iker explained that after the vet told him the cat was most likely homeless, yet also was quite healthy, Iker just couldn’t leave it behind, he had grown attached to the cat that stalked him and decided to keep it, and that it would make great company. James had to agree that any pet, well, apart of a fish maybe, would make good company, and he was all in for Iker getting some more company, because at least his mom could act normal every once in a while, but it sounded like Iker’s parents never did. The thing James probably understood the least is that Iker called the cat Martín, James wasn’t a big fan of giving pets human names, he’d much prefer names like speedy, spot, even mister fluffypants was a reasonable pet name for James.

He had helped Iker pick pretty much anything you could get for a cat, all the basic things, like bowls and toys, a cat tree of course, and Iker even got a leash for his cat. Apparently some cats didn’t mind walking on a leash and Iker was hoping his cat would want it, or he could try and get it to get used to it. Iker got some more stuff, to make sure that his cat would have a good time, James felt like Iker was spoiling the cat a little, but Iker was so excited that James kept quiet. Okay maybe James didn’t like cats at all, because he felt they were distant and only cared about themselves, but Iker definitely didn’t share that thought about cats.

When it was weekend, and Iker finally had everything he needed for his cat, James realized that he didn’t do any homework yet. He had planned to do it for the last few days, but because Iker asked for his help James completely forgot about it. Sure James still had one day to do his homework, but the problem was that he already had planned something that day.

James gathered up the courage to ask Cris if he wanted to hang out, and Cris agreed, and so they had planned for James to come over on Sunday, the day before they both had to go back to school. It took James a few days, and a bit of encouragement from Isco and Iker, but at last he asked and Cris took no time at all to say yes.

James stared at his phone, lip in between his teeth. What was he suppose to do? Cancel it and do his homework or just go to Cris and risk getting detention at school? Both outcomes weren’t pleasant, both were terrible to be honest, and James couldn’t decide which one was worse.

After contemplating for a while, James let out a big sigh and typed away at Cris.

-Hey, I’m really sorry but I have to cancel tomorrow-

-What? Why? Change of plans?-

James’ heart felt heavy and he could feel his eyes get slightly wet. He felt terrible, letting Cris down over homework felt horrible, but he just really didn’t want any more trouble at school.

-No, well, in a way, I haven’t been able to do any homework yet..-

James just prayed that Cris would understand he hated to do this, and that it was in no way Cris’ fault at all, but just an unfortunate turn of events.

-Then just bring it along? If we do it together we should be done soon, then we can still have a little fun-

James stared at his screen. He wasn’t sure if it was because of his own stupidity, but the answer definitely surprised him. Did Cris really wanted to spend time with him so much that he didn’t mind they’d have to give up fun times for homework?

-Oh, sure, if you don’t mind-

-It’ll be better than both being alone right?-

-Yeah it makes sense-

-Haha, good, then I’ll see you tomorrow-

All of the bad feelings James had just a few minutes ago were completely gone, as a big grin was now visible on his face.

~

James’ heart was beating against his chest as he stood in front of Cris’ door. He had a tight grip on his backpack, which held all the homework he needed to do. He knew there was no way they could get it all done, but he also wasn’t sure how much Cris was willing to help him, if it was just for the homework he had to do on Monday, or if he’d help James with a bit more. It took James a few seconds to press the doorbell, and when he finally pressed it, his heart started beating even faster.

Cris didn’t take long to open the door, and he did so with a smile. “Hey there, did you have any trouble finding this place?” he asked.

James shook his head as his cheeks coloured a light red. His grip tightened and his eyes were all over the place.

Cris noticed that James was nervous, so he quickly invited him in and offered him something to drink. Again, James nodded in response, and after he finished his water he had calmed down a little.

“What do you want to start with?” Cris suggested.

“U-uhm, th- uh.. M-m, no.. H-history” James stuttered.

Cris nodded. “Well, I don’t have that myself but I’ll try to help you as much as possible” Cris smiled.

James smiled and grabbed his book. “I-it’s uh, not a, n-not uhm, much” James explained, as he opened his book and pointed to the things he still needed to do. “Alr-ready did uh, mo-m-most during, during uh, t- c-class” he added.

Cris nodded and sat down, then looked at the questions. “What if, you start at the bottom, and I do at the top, and we work our way to each other, and then when we have everything answered, I’ll explain my answers to you, so you can learn a little bit from it too” Cris suggested.

“G-great” James smiled in response.


	25. Trouble Lurking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now I'm 1/4th through the words, man this feels weird

Iker didn’t feel at ease. It had nothing to do with his new cat, Martín, though. Oh no, Martín was great. Although he seemed to like lying in the middle of Iker’s bed, leaving Iker with a lot less space to sleep, he was very nice to Iker. He didn’t seem to mind spending a lot of time indoors, either playing with Iker or laying around, and he even seemed to like walking around on a leash. Overall Martín seemed to be the perfect cat to Iker, the perfect company at his home.

No, it was something else that was bothering Iker. He was fine before he went to school, but as soon as he arrived and saw a certain someone, his stomach twisted and he somehow knew bad things were going to happen. He didn’t know when, he didn’t know how, but he knew who would be behind it, and he also knew that it could be bad, very bad, if the plans would work out in the worst way possible for him.

James noticed something was off about Iker, Iker was never quiet, sure he didn’t always speak a whole lot, but he was never as quiet as that either. He also seemed distracted, he was constantly looking around himself, giving half answers whenever Isco asked him something, and he didn’t even touch his food during the first break. James saw Isco noticed it too, because Isco gave him a specific look, and then nodded his head towards Iker.

So during philosophy, when the whole class was working on homework, and allowed to talk at the same time, Isco turned to James.

“Do you know what’s wrong with Iker? He’s certainly acting odd.. I know he sometimes looks around him a lot but this is just insane, the only thing he’s done during lunch break is look around, it’s like he thinks someone is stalking him!” Isco whispered to James.

James nodded in response. “He.. I, n-no one seemed to uh, to be.. around, y-you know..?” he tried to explain.

“Yeah, you mean, it’s not like anyone is around us a lot, it’s just the usual thing, right?” Isco asked.

James nodded again.

“Yeah, I wonder who he constantly is looking out for, he never mentioned being afraid of anyone right? And I never really paid attention to why he used to get angry.. I know it probably was people annoying him and trying to get him to curse and yell, but I never paid attention to who it was because I, well, I was kind of scared and he wasn’t a friend or anything so I just didn’t bother get involved you know? Kind of wish I did now.. but then again I never would’ve expected to become friends with him so.. yeah” Isco acknowledged.

“ ‘S okay, we, we will find it- figure, figure it out” James replied, though he wasn’t so sure about it. James had no idea if someone even caused it, or if something happened to Iker and now he was just confused and scared, although that probably wasn’t it either. He knew though, that without Iker speaking up about it, it would take a long time for him and Isco to find out what caused it.

James thought about asking Cris for help, maybe that would increase their chances, but then again, Cris and Iker weren’t really friends. He wouldn’t be surprised if Cris had no idea either, but maybe his friends did? James wasn’t sure if he should ask though, he didn’t know if Iker wanted anyone else to know about it, maybe it was something very private, and by asking other people for help it would only get worse. There was also the small possibility that Cristiano just didn’t care about Iker at all, maybe he had the same opinion about Iker as Isco used to have, maybe he even was a little scared of Iker, but Cris seemed like the kind of person who was nice to most people. He was nice to James, and James never did anything to catch Cris’ attention, in fact he was, and well, still is, one of the more unpopular kids at school, and James still didn’t really know just why Cris was totally fine with being friends with him..

Meanwhile, Iker was holding his hands in his hair as he had to spend the entire class alone, with his worst nightmare. Of course the asshole made sure all the seats in the back were taken, of course he even made sure that Iker had to sit in front of him, and of course his classmates happily helped along with this evil plan against him, because nothing was more fun than seeing Iker explode with anger and then get sent to the principal office for the millionth time. He knew that it wouldn’t have been much different if James or Isco were there, and in a way he was glad they were not there so they couldn’t fall victim to the person Iker liked to refer to as, Satan. He knew Satan already knew about his friends and it was only a matter of time before Isco and James would get involved in this as well, but the longer it would take to get to that point, the better.

He was not going to let them win today, he was not going to get angry, no matter how many things they threw at him or how many times they tried to provoke him with words. Iker just closed his eyes and repeated the words ‘stay calm’ over and over in his head. He tried to think of nice things to distract himself, he tried to think about every time he spend time with James and Isco outside of school, he tried to think about Martín, about coming home to that adorable face, and have him immediately demand attention from Iker, because that’s just how cats are.

Somehow, Iker magically made it through the entire class without saying anything out loud. He had gotten slightly angry on the inside, but his tactic had worked, thinking about fun times had kept the anger from getting too much to handle. Iker made sure he packed his stuff quickly and leave the room as soon as possible, but not before taking one quick glance at Satan. Iker enjoyed to see the annoyed look on his face, it wasn’t often Iker managed to win at school, so this was a real victory. Though he also knew it was far from over, because whenever Arbeloa decided to show his face, lots of trouble always followed.


	26. Tears

Isco had asked Iker and James to come over during the weekend again, except this time he wanted them to spend the night there as well. Isco expected his two best friends to be very excited about it, and to say yes immediately, but their responses were quite disappointing.

Iker wanted to, at first, he was excited until he realized it meant leaving Martín all alone with his parents for the night, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He tried to tell himself that Martín would probably do just fine, maybe he’d leave the window open so that Martín could go out on his own whenever he wanted. Though leaving the window open with no one watching probably wasn’t a good idea.. Sure his parents would be home but they barely paid attention to anything around them, anyone could just climb up into his room with a ladder and steal God knows what. Iker couldn’t take Martín along either, that’s just not something you do, he knew Martín would most likely behave and not do anything to cause trouble, but to bring his cat during a sleepover..?

James also wanted to go very badly, but then there was his mother that probably wouldn’t let him go, especially because she had been annoyed with him for the past few days, and then there was that he wouldn’t be able to talk to Cris at all. He talked a lot to Cris, every day after school, and Cris didn’t seem to mind. He’d even start talking to James half of the time, and James had already told him a few times that if he needed some space or time for himself, he should just say so, but Cris would always say it was fine and then continue to talk to him for the rest of the evening. Sure he could tell Cris that he would be busy, but the truth was that he didn’t want to, he liked talking to Cris so much that it was hard to give it up, he liked the feelings he’d get whenever Cris would start talking to him, he liked the silly things Cris would say that always made James laugh, and he couldn’t imagine himself living without that, even for just one or two days.

So Isco gave them the silent treatment for the rest of the day. At first it was kind of nice, some peace and quiet while eating, but it soon got very boring, and even though Iker and James could talk with each other just fine, it felt mean to not include Isco. Whenever they tried to he wouldn’t answer though, he’d just glare at them, with his arms crossed. Sometimes he’d open his mouth to complain, but then he’d quickly change his mind and closed it again, he was going to keep this up until they either gave him a proper explanation as to why they couldn’t come, or they would agree to the sleepover.

James broke at the end of the day and gave in, he couldn’t handle the silence anymore, he felt terrible and so he agreed to coming over, the whole weekend. He explained, or well, stuttered, that he would just really miss Cris and that it was the reason why he was holding back at first, all while his face turned more and more red. Isco grinned and immediately forgave him, said it was cute how head over heels James was and rambled on about the cause, and Iker just grinned at him.

Iker didn’t hold out much longer, but he waited until he had a moment alone with Isco until he explained himself. He ended up asking if he could bring Martín along, and to his surprise Isco said yes, without hesitation. Apparently Isco loved pets, any pet, and so he was excited to meet this weird cat that stalked Iker until he was adopted.

So Iker ended up picking James up Saturday morning to head to Isco’s house. James didn’t know Iker would bring his cat however, and wasn’t too happy when he found out Martín was sitting in the backseat, without a cage. He was surprised when the cat stayed on that seat until they arrived at Isco’s house, he knew dogs could easily sit in cars, but he had never heard of a cat doing that same thing. He was also surprised to find that Martín actually didn’t mind his leash and was wearing it during the entire car ride.

They had fun during the day, Isco mainly wanted to play video games again and the other two didn’t mind, so that’s what they did most of the time. At one point Iker said that he wanted to take Martín outside for a bit, and after Isco said he’d join, James agreed to come too. It was just a walk around the block, and James had to agree that it was fun to see how the cat was so relaxed around dogs and would scared them away easily when they got too close, it reminded him of Iker in a way.

Soon it became night time and it was time to go to sleep. Isco pushed some things in his room aside to make room for the three mattresses that ended up on the floor. The three of them did what needed to be done, brushing teeth, going to the bathroom, switching to pyjamas and eventually laying down with blankets covering their bodies. The room wasn’t completely dark, there was a little light near Isco’s bed that was still burning, but it was quiet. For a few minutes no one knew what to do or say, if they should talk or just go to sleep, but then Isco spoke up.

“This is so awesome, I already want to do this more often, it’s so much fun to spend the entire day with you two, I wouldn’t mind living with you, I’m sure that’ll be great too” he said smiling.

Iker chuckled lightly. “Who knows, maybe one day we will, I wouldn’t mind doing it either”.

James smiled, he liked the idea of not having to deal with his nagging mom again, and he was sure Iker would know how to do most adult things.

“Oh, I’ve been wanting to ask, does the light bother you guys? I can turn it off if it is, I don’t mind” Isco stated.

“Oh, no, it’s fine, I can sleep just fine with lights on” Iker answered.

“Y-yeah, it’s uh, no.. not a problem” James joined.

“You need to be able to sleep too Isco” Iker added.

Isco turned to Iker. “What?”.

“We don’t want you to give up your sleep just because some small light may bother us” Iker explained.

“Oh, but, uh, like I said, I don’t mind..” Isco answered.

“No need to.. to be uh, a- uhm, a-ashamed” James replied.

“I, but I, ‘m not ashamed.. “ Isco responded, and then things went quiet for a bit.

“You know James” Iker said after a bit, “ I’m, yeah, I’m jealous of you”.

James frowned a little. “Why?” he asked.

“Because.. Your first real crush, someone you really really like, you’re lucky with the way things are going. You get to talk to him every day, you get to see him in person almost every day, he lives in this city, and, and it seems like he likes you too, at least as a friend” Iker explained.

James started blushing, he wasn’t sure how to respond to that, especially because Iker implied that Cris may love like James as well.

“Is this about your vacation crush? Why don’t you try looking for him?” Isco suggested.

“I tried, when I got home from that vacation, but then I realized I practically knew nothing about him, nothing useful that could help me figure out where he lives and all” Iker answered.

“Well, then tell me some things about him, maybe I can find him, and before you say it’s a lost cause, I happen to be very good with the internet and finding things, so just give me a chance okay? Tell me as many things as you can remember” Isco said.

Iker sighed, petted Martín a few times and sighed again. “Alright, fine. I met him while I was on vacation with my uncle and aunt and little brother, we went up north, to the sea, to a camping not far from the water. He was with his family, same camping, same field even. He immediately caught my attention because he looked so angry, but it turned out he was just focused and he just kind of always looks angry, people say my face is the same, maybe that’s why he caught my eye.. Well, he sat by himself a lot, he was either reading or listening to music, sometimes watching the people around, he was too shy to come up to anyone” Iker spoke, and then stopped for a bit.

Isco watched him and noticed a small glistering in the corner of his eyes. Was Iker crying? He would’ve never thought that he would ever get to see Iker cry, he didn’t think Iker was someone who would cry easily, or maybe this was one of those special occasions, that meant that he really must’ve liked that kid..

James noticed it to when Iker continued. His voice would crack sometimes, and he sniffed a few times as well. James felt bad for Iker, he could relate to how Iker felt. Of course he didn’t really know what it was like to like someone you never got to see or talk to again, but he knew what it was like to really like someone and all the feelings it brought along. He knew what it was like to be unsure if someone liked you or not, and to be scared of telling the other person because it may ruin the friendship you’ve build up.

“And he left before I did.. I was so sad about him leaving that I completely forgot to ask for his number or anything.. At least I got a hug before he left..” Iker stopped to sigh again, “Those last few days without him were terrible.. “.

“I’m sorry.. I really hope you get to meet him again.. He sounds like a really great guy” Isco replied, the whole story made him feel kind of sad as well.

Iker suddenly started to make strange noises. At first James and Isco had no idea what was going on, until the noises started to sound more like giggles. Isco frowned at James, and James made circles around his ears with his fingers, suggesting Iker might have gone crazy.

“N-no, Ma-artín, sto-op, that ti-i-ickles!” Iker chuckled as he tried to get the cat off his stomach. Martín let out a meow, and then jumped right back on top of Iker again. Iker kept chuckling, and then wiped the corner of his eyes. “Alright, I won’t be sad anymore, you silly cat” he smiled, and petted Martín’s head.

Not long after, the three friends had their eyes closed and soon drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took me a while again, Iker's transfer rumours stress me out and it's hard to be objective and believe he'll stay when everyone around you is talking about him leaving  
> Also, I'm curious, as to who you think is Iker's crush, I know there's not a whole lot known about the person right now but I'm just curious, I like it when people have fan theories and can prove them with actual facts from the book/movie/show/game


	27. Foreign

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first I didn't really feel like writing with all that has been going on with Iker, but I'll also be somewhat busy the next couple of days and I did want to keep up my chapter per week. In the end I don't think it turned out bad

After that sleepover Iker seemed more sad. Well, James was absolutely sure he was more sad, but Iker was pretty damn good at hiding it. To anyone else it may have seemed like Iker was just being himself, but from time to time he would zone out and sigh, and there’d be this sad look in his eyes. Those moments never lasted long so they were hard to spot, but James noticed them, because James cared a lot about his friends and so he paid a lot of attention to them.

At first James wasn’t sure what to do about it, he wasn’t sure if Isco noticed, though he had a feeling Isco saw it as well, and he wasn’t sure how and when to bring it up, and if they could even do anything about it. Surely Iker must’ve tried every possible thing to find his crush, so what more was there that he and Isco could do? Iker knew more about him than they did, and even though they got a pretty good idea of what the guy was like, they still had no idea what he looked like.

James also thought about talking to Cris about it, but as he was about to type the words on his phone he realized that he didn’t know if Iker wanted Cris to know. James knew Cris was a great guy, and that he probably wouldn’t do anything mean to Iker, but Iker most likely didn’t know that. Although, Iker must’ve had some sort of a positive opinion on Cris, because Isco had accidentally told him that Iker was the one that set him and Cris up in the first place. James knew that if Iker didn’t trust Cris he would’ve never helped them to become friends. In the end James decided against it because, even though he was sure it couldn’t do any harm, he felt like maybe Iker didn’t want other people to know, and James also was fairly sure Cris wouldn’t be of much help in the situation either.

There were multiple times James tried to talk to Isco about it, it was at the tip of his tongue but it still wouldn’t come out. He wasn’t sure why, maybe he was afraid that if he actually talked about it then knowing that they both wouldn’t be able to help Iker would be real. If they didn’t talk about it then they also couldn’t be disappointed with their lack of plans. James hoped, prayed that Isco would be the one to start because he couldn’t, but Isco kept quiet, Isco didn’t say a word about it, and it made James wonder if maybe Isco didn’t realize that Iker was sad..

~

The next day, Isco was smiling, more than usual, he had this smug smile on his face, as if he was very happy with himself, as if he had done something incredible.

James didn’t want to know what it was.

Of course he cared about Isco, and of course it was nice to see him super happy, but this was just the worst timing ever. Iker still had his zoning out moments, and James’ mood was dropping because he felt so useless. Iker had helped him with something really important, and now that James had a chance to do the same thing back he couldn’t, and it made him feel terrible. So he really wasn’t in the mood for whatever great thing Isco did, it could wait, helping Iker was more important.

James maybe was a little mad at Isco for not noticing how their friend was sad, he maybe was a little mad because he felt like Isco was ignoring Iker’s feelings. He couldn’t actually be mad at Isco, but maybe he was feeling just a little mad, just a little annoyed, just a little frustrated.

Isco didn’t waste any time during lunch break and immediately brought up the reason he was so happy with himself, James and Iker barely had the time to sit down before Isco opened his mouth.

“You guys, I have great news, I have amazing news, I think it allows me to say that I am a pretty awesome person and I’m sure the two of you are going to be just as excited about it as I am” He said with a huge grin.

James looked at him, he was kind of glaring at Isco, but at the same time not really. He just hoped that his gesture would make Isco realize it was better to save the great news for later.

However, Isco completely ignored James silent hint and started talking again before Iker could even respond.

“I found him”.

Iker did nothing at first, he had zoned out a little again, and so it took a couple of second before he realized what Isco said. When it finally hit him his eyes widened, he opened his mouth but he couldn’t find any words to say, and he ended up just looking at Isco in disbelief.

Isco’s grin grew even more. “I guess you could say I’m somewhat of a genius, especially because I didn’t have a whole lot of info to help me, but I did it, and I’m sure it’s him because everything you told me about him matches with his profile. Though you forgot to mention he’s foreign, that would’ve made things somewhat easier, knowing he’s not from Spain, doesn’t even talk much Spanish, how did you two talk without speaking the same languages?”.

“I.. We, uhm, H-ho-“ Iker stuttered as he continued to stare at Isco with wide eyes.

“Oh you haven’t even heard the best part yet, he recently moved to Spain! Yeah that’s right, he lives a lot closer now, I suppose talking will be easier now too as he will have to learn Spanish. He doesn’t live very nearby though, it’s still a two hour drive, but hey it’s better than nothing right? I mean before you definitely would’ve had to take a plane if you wanted to visit him, now you can just go by car, and you have one of your own so that’s pretty neat right? Oh and as far as I could tell he’s single too, which is the most important thing of course” Isco rambled on as he leaned back in his chair, still grinning at Iker.

“T-thank, th-tha-thank yo-you” Iker eventually managed to say.

At that moment James swore to himself that he would never think bad of his friends again, unless he had a real solid reason to which he could back up with facts. He would never assume anything bad about them anymore, he would never doubt them, he would fully trust them. Because at that moment he realized he had the best friends in the whole entire world, he had two friends who he cared deeply about, and who cared deeply about him, and each other. Two best friends who would do anything to help him and each other out, even if it means doing something that seemed impossible.


	28. Sorrow

As the week progressed, Iker got happier and happier, his smile was bigger than James had ever seen. The only thing he could talk about was his crush, how he was so glad they immediately got along well, how he was very happy that communicating was a lot easier now that they both knew Spanish, how he could barely believe they could already talk for hours and not run out of things to say, whenever Iker spoke it always had something to do with his crush. Iker was still wary of course, he wouldn’t just speak about his crush out in the open, he would lean in close and speak more quiet than usual, or they’d go to places where no one was around. He even came up with a codename, just in case. James wasn’t sure why but it was all fine with him, as long as he understood what they were talking about.

Iker’s mood got better, but Isco’s mood was dropping every day. He became more distant, more quiet, he let Iker do most of the talking and just replied with a weak smile from time to time. It was quite heart breaking to see how different Isco was from his usual self. James knew fully well why it was happening though, he just had no idea what to do against it, and if he even should do anything against it. He just hoped that in a week Isco would cheer up again and go back to his happy self.

After school was over, and Isco had left to go home, Iker pulled James along and they went for a drive. Iker hadn’t said why, what they were doing, or where they were going, but James knew it had to be about Isco, and so he submissively followed, staying quiet along the way. He didn’t speak when Iker stopped the car and got out, he didn’t speak when they were both walking around town, he waited for Iker to explain himself.

After finding an empty playground, Iker sat down on one of the swings and looked at James. James followed his example, and swung slightly as he watched Iker in return.

“We have to go, be there for him, just, do something special when it happens” Iker suggested.

James nodded in response. “What are uh, di-d-do you have in, uhm, in your.. in mind?”.

“Well, I figured the best thing to do is to ask for help” Iker answered, and started explaining what he meant.

James nodded along again, Iker’s plan was great, but James knew that most of Iker’s plans were great, since he knew Iker was very smart. It was a fairly simple plan as well, nothing could go wrong and nothing could go any different than what they would expect.

~

It was Friday, and Isco definitely was more sad than they had ever seen him. This time he barely responded at all, it was like he was completely lost in his own world. He didn’t do anything during classes, he just sat and stared at his desk, and somehow the teachers seemed to understand what was going on as well, and so they just let him be.

During lunch Isco only ate a bit of his sandwich. James could hear his stomach growl from across the table. It hurt, it was terrible to see his best friend like that, but at the same time James could understand why. Of course he had no idea what it felt like, what he would do if he was in Isco’s situation, but he could understand that it was a terrible thing and that it would cause someone to just not care about anything anymore.

Iker didn’t talk much that lunch either, simply because he didn’t really know what to say. He didn’t want to talk about his crush, he didn’t want to talk about happy things, knowing what was going on with Isco. He hated to see his friend like that, but he knew that trying to cheer him up would amount to nothing, it was just best to let Isco feel the things he felt, and just let him be sad for today.

At the end of the day, Isco’s father was there to pick him up. Isco walked straight to him, without even saying goodbye to his friends. He stared at the ground, and didn’t even look up as he returned the hug his father gave him. Isco’s dad waved at James and Iker and smiled a little, and the two boys waved back. James and Iker watched as the two walked away, and then made their way to Iker’s car. James let out a big sigh before he got in, which made Iker pat his shoulder.

~

Isco had changed his clothes and dumped his school bag, and was now walking across a field with a white flower in his hand. His father was walking besides him, holding his hand on Isco’s shoulder as comfort, and holding another white flower in his other hand. Isco stopped in front of a stone that was shaped like a heart. He squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to stop the tears from rolling down his cheek, but it didn’t help at all. He placed the flower in front of the stone, along with his father, and then turned to him to hug him tightly. Isco cried, loud and long, while gripping his father’s jacket. His father rubbed his back, and ruffled his hair, and sometimes stopped to wipe the tears off his own face.

Isco eventually calmed down, and turned around to walk back. However, when he looked up he was surprised by two people standing in the distance. His two friends were standing underneath a tree, both dressed up nicely, and Iker was holding a bouquet of white flowers in his hands. As they came closer Isco ran up to them and hugged them at the same time. He looked up at them in confusion, and James smiled lightly.

“Your dad told us about today, he warned us that you’d be very sad, that it was normal, that it happened every year, and that you’d be fine a few days afterwards. We wanted to come with you, so we asked when and where, and here we are” Iker explained.

The three of them walked back to Isco’s father, and Iker carefully put the bouquet on the grave. He then wrapped his arm around Isco’s shoulder, and Isco in return laid his head on Iker’s shoulder. James stood on the other side of Isco and grabbed his hand, squeezing it lightly. Isco smiled a little, rubbed the tears off his face and then took a deep breath.

“Hey mom, I have a special surprise for you this year. I want you to meet my best friends, Iker and James. They’re the best, I’m sure you would’ve loved them if you were here” Isco spoke softly. He talked about several things the three of them had done, all while Iker and James were smiling softly as they stood next to their friend.


	29. Happiness

They stayed over that weekend again. Well it wasn’t a sleepover but they visited Isco on both days, and stayed for as long as they could. Isco was still sad of course, he still wasn’t talking a whole lot, but he did smile while they were playing video games. He still cried a few times, but whenever he did James and Iker would be there to hug him, or better said, James would immediately wrap his arms around Isco, and then glare at Iker and pull him into the hug as well, because Iker still wasn’t used to the hugging stuff.

On Monday Isco was doing better, he was talking more, smiling more, laughing more. He still had his moments where he would look down to his lap and feel sad, but they didn’t happen often and didn’t last very long as well. James was very happy with that, he was worried that Isco might get stuck in his sadness, since he didn’t know how Isco handled this the previous years, but now he knew that Isco was going to be just fine, and it lifted a huge weight off of his shoulders.

He had talked about it with Cristiano, well, he didn’t use any details, he wasn’t sure if Isco was okay with other people knowing, especially because Isco hadn’t brought it up himself and he even didn’t talk about it at all over the weekend. James used vague descriptions, he just said his friend was very sad over something that happened and that it was the reason why he didn’t talk much that weekend, and Cris seemed to understand. Cris tried asking what was going on, but when James continued to be vague he stopped, knowing that if he didn’t the outcome wouldn’t be nice.

James did talk a lot about how he felt, how he was worried and how he wished he could just make Isco smile and laugh again during that weekend, but Cris assured him that being sad wasn’t always a bad thing, that letting your emotions out, acknowledging them, and feeling them was a good thing, as long as it didn’t make the person unhappy for a long time. Cristiano also explained that someone could never be truly happy unless they experienced sadness, that people had to be sad every once in a while to remember what happiness felt like, and how good it was. James hadn’t thought of it that way, and thinking about how he liked someone that made him see things differently made him very happy, although he didn’t let Cris know that.

The next day James woke up to the buzzing of his phone. He rubbed his eyes and looked at his screen, seeing that Cris had sent him an early message. He did that sometimes, not every morning, only when he woke up on time, because Cristiano admitted that he slept through his alarm a lot and often had to rush to school to make it in time. James turned onto his back and sent a message back.

-Morning, wow you finally woke up on time again, gold star for you!-

-Haha very funny, I should have never told you that :p-

-You did that all by yourself, I didn’t even ask about it-

-Yeah yeah I know, now, there’s something I need to ask you-

-Go ahead-

-I was hoping you and I could sit together during lunch, just the two of us, I want to talk to you about some things, but I don’t want to do it over the phone-

James’ cheeks turned red. Cris wanted to spend time just with him? What could he probably want to discuss with him? Was it good or bad? Maybe Cris was going to tell him that he didn’t want to be friends anymore.. But then he would’ve been more distant right? It wouldn’t make any sense to pretend like everything is fine and then say that he didn’t want to talk to James anymore, right..?

-Hello sunshine? Did you fall asleep again? Can we do that today or do you want to do it another day?-

James snapped out of it and looked at his screen again. He tried to convince himself that it couldn’t be something bad, he wouldn’t let his anxiety win, it just didn’t make any logical sense at all.

-Yeah sure, when and where?-

-How about I wait at your locker, I just need the number so I know in what area it is-

James gave him the number, and with that Cristiano said he had to get ready and that they’d talk at school. James stayed in bed for a few more minutes, still thinking about if this was a good or bad thing. He eventually tried to push it out of his mind and got ready for school, he wanted to get there on time so maybe he could talk about it with Isco and Iker before classes started.

~

They ended up barely having any time. James did manage to say that Cris wanted to talk to him and that he wasn’t sure why, and Iker assured him that everything was going to be fine, but it wasn’t enough for James. He wished they could’ve helped him a little more, that they could disprove all the bad things James had come up with on his way to school, but all Isco could tell him on the way to class was, that if it was something bad it would’ve been easier to say over the phone, and therefore it had to be something good.

Classes didn’t distract James that much, but luckily lunch time came soon and Cristiano was already waiting by the lockers by the time James got there. He was smiling, which had to be a good sign, but James still wasn’t sure about it. Still, just in case it was good, James didn’t want Cris to think that James didn’t want to talk, so he put on his best fake smile when he walked closer.

Cristiano guided him outside, and they sat somewhere quiet, with just a few students around, whom James had never seen before. Cris took a deep breath and then smiled at James.

“Alright, here we go. Marcelo has been bugging me about this for so long, and he said he wouldn’t stop until I told you, so I’m going to do this now. Yep, I am going to tell you” he said.

James started at Cris, he wasn’t sure what was going on. Cristiano looked nervous, but James had never seen him nervous before, so he wasn’t sure if that’s how he was when he was nervous. It even was hard to imagine for James that Cris would be nervous around him.

“So.. I know we don’t know each other for that long, and we don’t know each other that well, uhm, I mean, sure you’ve told me lots of things and I told you some stuff, but you get what I mean right?” Cris asked.

James simply nodded in response. He didn’t really know what Cris was saying, or where he was going with it, but he thought it was best to just let him talk until something made sense.

“Okay, that’s good, so what I was trying to say, I know this may come a little, soon, and I totally understand if you’re not ready for it yet or you want to wait longer, or if you even say no, that, that’s all fine, I can, well, I don’t really want to live with that but I’ll have to and I know I can, if uhm, if you say no of course. And if you want I can pretend it never happened and-“ Cristiano started rambling, until James cut him off.

“J-just, sa- spi- .. just s-sp-spill it!” James exclaimed.

“Right, yeah, sorry about that. What I’m trying to say, or rather, ask, is..” Cristiano paused for a few seconds to take another deep breath, “Do you, want to.. be, do you want to be my.. my boyfriend! There, I said it”.

James stared at him with his mouth right open. Out of all the things he expected, this definitely wasn’t one of them. He closed and opened his mouth several times, trying to say something, but his mind froze while trying to process what just happened.

Cris chuckled lightly, out of nervousness and because watching James be completely baffled looked very cute. “Is that a yes..?” he asked carefully.

James ended up closing his mouth and nodding furiously. His eyes were still wide and his expression was still more surprised than happy, but Cristiano got the yes he wanted, and so he pulled James into a hug, while smiling brightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I was writing the last part I wasn't sure if Cris would actually be nervous about it, but it felt more natural to have it that way, I feel like it's a big thing to ask and anyone would probably be somewhat nervous, right?


	30. Under the rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On one hand I'm happy with it on the other I'm not so sure about this chapter

Dating was weird. Suddenly, instead of just calling someone by their name, you now had to use these weird romantic nicknames. Those nicknames either involved calling someone an infant, or using the sweetest food in addition with a word that had something to do with love. Talking to them was different too, well, it was mainly the same, but then the conversation would somehow switch to something that involved a lot of saying nice and sweet words to the other, and winking emoji faces, if you’re texting said person.

James really had to get used to it, this surely wasn’t how he imagined it all to be. He thought it just meant spending more time with Cris, and hugs and kisses every once in a while. Though the hugs were really nice, James didn’t dare to kiss Cristiano yet, and thank god Cris hadn’t tried to really kiss him either. The other thing he had a lot of trouble with were the romantic nicknames. It felt weird being called those things, and it was equally weird to use them when he was talking to Cris.

He didn’t really dare talk about it with Cristiano. What if it wasn’t normal to feel that way? How was James suppose to know? This was the first time anything like that ever happened to him. Plus he never had anyone explain him how it went. He didn’t have his parents to be a good example for him, they’ve been separated for years, and he could barely remember his parents being nice to each other in that way when they still were together. So James turned to the only two people he knew he could trust on this subject.

“So, how is the dating life?” Isco asked with a grin.

James didn’t look up and raised his shoulders for a second. He was embarrassed, so very embarrassed that he couldn’t even speak up, but at the same time he was very glad Isco asked. He was glad he didn’t have to bring it up himself, because he wasn’t sure if he was able to. Good thing Isco was incredibly curious.

Isco looked at Iker, hoping he’d have an answer as to why James gave such an answer, but Iker gave him a similar look back.

“What’s going on?” Iker then asked.

Alright, maybe talking about it during lunch time wasn’t the best thing to do. James really didn’t know what to do or say, at least with texting he would have the time to think about his answer, and he wouldn’t have to actually get the words out of his mouth.

“Okay uhm, just nod when I get the right thing okay?” Isco suggested, then immediately began to list a whole bunch of things. “Do you miss him? Is that why you’re this way? Is he acting different from before? Do you not like him as much as you thought you did? Is he a bad kisser? Did you find out he’s dating multiple people? Uhm, is he pushing you to do things you don’t want to do?”.

James nodded, then shook his head, and again, and again, then a shrug, another shake of the head followed by one more.

“You haven’t kissed him yet?” was Isco’s first reaction.

James sighed, this wasn’t working. He had to tell them somehow. He bit his lip and then grabbed his phone. He knew it wasn’t the most ideal way to talk right now, but he didn’t know what else to do. Iker and Isco gave him weird looks when he was texting away, their friend was really confusing them. Iker seemed even more surprised when he heard his phone buzz. He watched James as he took it out of his pocket, and then read the message.

-It’s not any of that, I’m happy, but it’s so weird to be dating, I didn’t know dating was like that. The nicknames make me feel weird, and not really in a good way, and I don’t dare to kiss him, and I don’t know how to tell him all of that.. What if he won’t like me anymore when I do..-

Iker let out a sigh and then showed the message to Isco. Isco looked kind of sad and ruffled James’ hair.

“Don’t worry Hammy, we’ll help you out” he said.

“James listen, you have to talk to him about this, I know it’s hard for you and you don’t like it, but it’s the only way. If he knows what’s bothering you then he can help, he can stop doing the things you don’t like and try finding things you are comfortable with. And if he doesn’t like you anymore, then he was a bad person to date in the first place. Dating someone is all about accepting the way someone is, and still liking them, even when you know the bad things about them, or the things you don’t like. If he really likes you he won’t mind, or try to find a way so you’re both happy” Iker explained, while leaning forward towards James.

James listened closely, and nodded from time to time. He didn’t like the answer, but he knew that Iker knew best, and that it was the only way. It wouldn’t be fair towards Cristiano if he didn’t talk about what was bothering him. Cris had always been nice to him and so far he hadn’t done anything James obviously didn’t want to. Plus if there was anything Cris didn’t like that James did, James would want to know about it.

“T-thanks” he replied to Iker with a smile.

“You’re welcome, if you need help talking to him I’m more than willing to help out” Iker responded.

~

After school James went with Cristiano. He has asked James if he wanted to go for a walk through the nearby park, and to maybe have a little picnic as well if the weather would be nice to them. James thought it was a great idea, up until the moment they left, since it had started to rain. Luckily Cristiano was prepared, he had brought an umbrella big enough for the two of them, and so they still went to the park, walking hand in hand.

James liked that, he liked holding hands with people, and he especially liked holding hands with Cris. Their hands were almost the same size, and so they fit together quite well. Cristiano would rub his thumb over the back of James’ hand every once in a while, and it was a feeling James really enjoyed. He almost whimpered every time Cris stopped, but he managed to keep himself quiet every time.

They walked in silence for a while. At times James got nervous because he felt like he was suppose to say something, but when he’d look at Cristiano, he’d find a smile on his face. It calmed James down, and when he wasn’t worrying about having to say something, he enjoyed the silence as well. Just walking through the park, listening to the sound of the rain hitting the umbrella, and whatever other things were happening around them, it was very soothing.

James knew that at some point he had to spit it out, and so he tried to get Cristiano’s attention by tugging on his hand. Cris looked at him and smiled, and when James stopped he stopped as well.

“What is it baby?” he asked.

James looked down, he didn’t dare look Cris in the eyes while saying what he was about to say, he barely gathered up enough courage to actually talk about it.

“T-that.. t-the.. n-n-names.. the.. b-baby and.. s-sweeth-heart.. I.. it.. I j-just..” James stuttered, and then went silent.

“You don’t like it?” Cris asked.

James simply nodded.

Cristiano smiled at him. “Alright, I’ll stop using them then, is there a nickname you do like? Do you not like it when I call you sunshine too?” Cris continued to ask.

“I, uh” James blushed slightly. “S-sunshine is.. I-I don’t.. i-it’s good..”.

“Good, then I’ll just call you Sunshine” Cris chuckled lightly and squeezed James’ hand slightly. “Is there anything else you don’t like?”.

“Uhm.. w-well just.. m-most.. I.. I n-never d-d.. d-dated before.. I.. It’s a-all.. n-new..” James confessed, his cheeks getting redder the more he spoke.

“That’s alright, if you want we can talk about this tonight, over the phone, I know it’s easier for you to speak that way, then you can tell me all about what you do and don’t like, things of which you don’t know if you like them, things you want to try. I want you to be comfortable around me sunshine, I want to know if things bother you” Cristiano explained. He had moved his hand to James’ face, letting go of his hand in the process, and stroked James’ cheek softly. “I want you to be happy”. 

James stared at Cris, he got overwhelmed by a whole lot of different feelings, and for a second he didn’t know what to do. One of those feelings rose above the others, completely filling James’ body, and before he had the chance to be scared, he acted upon them. James put his hands on Cristiano’s cheek and kissed him, full on the lips. The weird feeling in his stomach now felt stronger than ever, and he loved it, he loved everything he was feeling, and Cris’ lip against his felt like the best thing he could ever feel.

Cristiano was completely taken by surprise. He had lowered the umbrella a little, causing the two of them to get wet, but James didn’t notice, James kept pressing his lips against Cris’. When Cris realized what was going on, he held the umbrella back up to shelter them from the rain, and pulled James closed by putting his other arm around the other’s waist.

Eventually James pulled away, and he looked at Cris with a bright smile. Cristiano couldn’t help but smile back, and then he placed a soft kiss on James’ forehead.


	31. Flowers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh I don't like this either but it might just be my mood

James was nervous, very nervous. Today was Valentine’s day, and so he felt like he was suppose to do something special with Cristiano. The problem was that James had no idea what couples did on Valentine’s day, and Cris hadn’t talked about it at all. He didn’t suggest going anywhere, he didn’t even ask if they could spend lunch time together or anything like that.

He had asked Isco the day before if he knew what people did during Valentine’s day, but all he knew is that his parents always had a special night out, while he stayed over at his grandparents. They never talked about what they did, and by the time they picked Isco up he would already be sleeping, he just knew that it was something his parents enjoyed very much. He also said that nowadays he always went out for dinner with his father, to kind of keep the tradition going, and so that his father wouldn’t waste the entire evening away in his bedroom.

James felt bad for asking afterwards, but Isco assured him that it was fine, that the dinner always was very nice. Isco ended up suggesting going out for dinner, but James wasn’t a big fan of that idea. In movies and shows people would always go to fancy restaurants, dress up nicely and afterwards it would usually result in sex, and James wasn’t looking forward to any of that. He asked Iker for advice too after that, but he just said to do something fun, which wasn’t very helpful. James didn’t really know what Cris liked, and his own idea of fun was watching Netflix all night, and that didn’t feel appropriate for Valentine’s day.

James talked to Cris before classes, but he didn’t mention anything about dinner or a night out or just the whole Valentine’s day stuff. He was really hoping Cristiano would have planned something great and would tell him about it, but again, no mention of any of that. Maybe Cris just forgot it was Valentine’s day, which was hard to imagine because it was everywhere, or maybe Cris just didn’t give a damn about Valentine’s day. Which would actually be fine with James, he didn’t like the day when he was single, and now that he finally had someone it just made him very nervous.

James’ first class was very uneventful. Just the usual copying notes and listening to the teacher go on and on, but during the next class something weird happened. A student walked into class, holding a whole bunch of flowers. Everyone looked up curiously, and the teacher paused the lesson, so that the student could call out several names and then give those people a flower. James turned to Iker, who was busy writing something in his notebook. He wasn’t even paying attention to what was going on, and so James poked his side a couple of time to gain his attention.

“Hm? What is it?” Iker said without looking up.

“W- Iker, W-what is go- what is, is this? Why uhm, why the.. flowers?” James whispered to him.

“Oh, it happens every year on Valentine’s day. On the days leading up to it, you can buy a flower and a card for someone, and then on this day it will be delivered to said person. It’s kind of stupid, the only people that get flowers are the ones who have been together for a while, or girls who send their female friends flowers because they’re good friends, it’s always the same people, and every year they freak out over it again” Iker responded, still too busy with his notebook to look up at James.

James sunk back in his chair and nodded a little, he knew Iker wouldn’t see it, it was more to himself anyway. He felt kind of bummed that he didn’t know about it earlier, maybe he could’ve sent Cristiano a flower, though it might’ve been too soon, they hadn’t even been together for a week, and he didn’t even know if Cristiano liked flowers. In the end James decided that it was probably better this way, maybe he’d go and buy something once his school day was over, though he didn’t know what to buy..

The next class went the same way, again they were interrupted and again the girl would call out names and then deliver them flowers. Except one thing was different this time. After saying a certain name, the classroom went quiet. People were looking around, waiting for someone to answer, or just raise their hand, but no one did. She called the name out again, and while she did, James got a jab from Iker’s elbow in his side.

“It’s your name, the flower is for you” Iker whispered after James gave him a glare.

James was confused for a couple of seconds, but then it hit him. Cris had actually bought him a flower. James slowly raised his hand, which was shaking a bit, as James was filling up with guilt. He should’ve done the same, he should’ve gotten Cristiano a flower. What if Cris will think he doesn’t like him anymore? Why was he so stupid to think that getting nothing on a day such as today was totally fine?

The girl smiled at him as she handed him the flower. James smiled back weakly and put it in front of him, then he grabbed the card and looked at it. It looked like Cris had started writing something and then changed his mind, because at the top were some crossed out sentences that were impossible to read. It simple said ‘For my Sunshine’ now, yet those three words managed to make James’ feel like he would explode due to the amount of butterflies he was feeling. He felt his face heat up, and covered his cheeks with his hands, hoping that no one would notice.

The blush was still visible on James’ face during lunch break. He was staring at the flower with a smile on his face, and he was so lost in thoughts that he didn’t even notice Isco storming his way.

“Alright, which one of you send me a flower? I know it has to be one of you because no one else would ever send me a flower” he spoke up when he stopped at the table.

Iker looked at him and shrugged. “It’s not me, and it can’t be James either, he didn’t know this was a thing” Iker explained.

Isco huffed and sat down. “I don’t believe it, I bet it’s you Iker, you’d probably be able to write such a wonderful poem, unless James has some special talent we didn’t know about” Isco responded.

“I swear, it’s not me, and why would I only send you a flower?” Iker answered.

“Well James has a flower too” Isco immediately said.

“Because he’s dating someone, remember?” Iker pointed out.

“Oh, oh yeah, I forgot about that..” Isco replied, causing Iker to chuckle. Isco looked at his rose and bit his lip. “But then who sent it to me? I never talk to anyone except for you two, I’ve never gotten a flower before, I never even got a poem or a small letter before. And this poem is really, it’s so nice, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But there’s just the poem on the card, no name, not even a hint, how am I suppose to find out who sent it to me?” Isco rambled on.

“I don’t know, I suppose you just have to hope they reveal themselves” Iker responded.

Isco sighed and nodded a little, then read the card once more.

Meanwhile Cristiano had walked up to them. He stood next to James and watched him with a smile, then awkwardly cleared his throat. He failed to catch James’ attention, and so he did it again, but it still didn’t work. He ended up just placing his hand on James’ shoulder, and finally, James looked up.

“Hey” Cris said, a faint blush appearing on his face. “I wasn’t sure what you’d like, but I did want to do something today because, well, it is Valentine’s day, and Marcelo and Pepe told me I should do it or else I would regret so, Marcelo also said he would kill me if I didn’t do it.. he seems to like you a lot, a-as a friend of course! So, yeah, I uhm, just, hope you, you like it, the card and uh, flower, of course” he continued nervously.

James smiled wide and grabbed Cris’ hand, then squeezed it. It was James’ best way of showing his appreciation, and luckily Cris understood, because his smile grew a lot bigger as well.


	32. Night

The poem had Isco in its grasp for the rest of the day. Even dinner with his father didn’t take his mind off of it, in contrary, he told his father all about it. Isco didn’t have secrets for his father, he happily shared everything he knew with his dad. He loved his father dearly, he was Isco’s best friend, along with James and Iker, and Isco felt incredibly lucky to have such an amazing father.

By the time it was midnight, Isco had read the poem about fifty times that day. He read it again in bed, scanning the words for any kind of detail that could help him figure out who it was from. That wasn’t the only reason he read it over and over though, he had fallen in love with the poem as well. It was so nice and gentle, so loving and kind, Isco never thought poetry could make him feel that way, and he wasn’t even a big fan of poetry.

He had tried everything, scanned every letter, tried to peel the paper apart to see if there wasn’t an extra secret layer, checked the back, checked if there weren’t any words pressed into the paper, but nothing came out of it. The only thing he had that could give him any clue as to who gave it to him, contained zero clues at all, and that greatly frustrated Isco. He had realized that maybe the person didn’t want him to know who they were, but Isco just had to know, he couldn’t help it, he was just a very curious person.

After he was awake for an hour longer than he had planned, he decided to lay the poem next to him and go to sleep. He’d ask James and Iker for help tomorrow, maybe they’d notice things he missed, or maybe he was just too tired to notice himself right now. Maybe, just maybe, the person would even reveal themselves tomorrow. The thought got Isco quite excited, and was a good enough reason to get him to definitely leave the letter alone for today, and go to sleep.

~

Iker was up later than he had planned too, but not for the same reasons as Isco. Iker was nervous, very nervous, because after seeing Cristiano and James interact today, he thought about telling his crush what he felt. At first it seemed like a good idea, but the longer Iker thought about it, the more scared he got. His mind filled up with all sorts of reasons as to why he shouldn’t, and when he tried to convince himself everything would be fine, those thoughts just became louder and more frequent.

Iker fully understood how James felt when he was nervous, because he just turned into a mess. He understood why James needed several pushes in the back to talk to Cris, he understood why dating him made him nervous, he just understood everything. He had never felt this nervous over anything before, and it wasn’t like Iker rarely felt nervous either. He got nervous quite often, but in a good, healthy way, not like this at all.

Iker was terrified of rejection, he was scared to death of his crush thinking the crush was weird, that he was weird. He worried about what would happen if his crush didn’t like guys, maybe he’d be okay with Iker’s crush, maybe he’d find it very awkward, or maybe he’d end up hating Iker because of it, maybe they’d never talk after that anymore. Iker didn’t know if he’d be able to handle that, he was always looking forward to their talks, and he hated saying goodbye. It had become very hard for him to take a small break from talking and do things he needed to do, because he just enjoyed talking so much. The second his crush would say he had to go, Iker missed him already, he’d even go through their conversations after his crush had left.

He knew he was probably being a bit too crazy about his crush, but he didn’t care, he wouldn’t change it if he could. Everything just felt right when they talked, he wasn’t scared of telling his crush anything, well, except for the feelings he had for him, that was the only thing Iker wouldn’t talk about.

~

James didn’t know how Cris could think that his mother would let him stay over that night, but he didn’t ask either. He knew that if he properly asked he would never be allowed to go, so he just told her that he would sleep over at Isco. It was his best bet, he had stayed at Isco’s for a few times already and his mother was always fine with it, even though that was during weekends. He figured that whatever Cristiano had in store for him on Valentine’s day would be worth whatever punishment his mother would give him. If the punishment would end up being really bad, he’d just make Cris suffer with him, to make things more fair.

He had turned his phone off after he told his mom, so that at least she couldn’t send him angry messages or call him, and interrupt his night with Cris. It made him more nervous at first, because he knew it would just make her more angry, but after a while he forgot about it, and so his worries went away as well.

They mainly just talked, James told a lot about himself and so did Cris. James found out that Cris was very interested in cars, especially fancy expensive ones, even though he didn’t have his driver’s license yet, that he liked sports, he didn’t really have a specific sport he really enjoyed, he just liked everything equally, and that he liked superhero stuff.

James couldn’t believe his luck when he heard that last thing, because he was pretty crazy about superhero stuff as well. He had watched most Superman and Batman movies, saw all the latest Marvel movie stuff, and watched Arrow, Daredevil, Agents of SHIELD and other superhero related series on Netflix. Once they found out they shared that similar interest, the rest of their conversations all were about superheroes, who was their favourite, who was the absolute worst, and what superpowers they would like to have.

They talked for a long time, up until Cris’ sister got mad and yelled at them to go to sleep, or she’d kick them out. They whispered for a bit, and then decided that going to sleep would be best. James stared at the ceiling for a while, thinking about all the things they had in common. He then realized there was one more thing they both experienced, something he overlooked earlier. Cristiano lived with his sister, who was some years older than him. He hadn’t mentioned his father at all to James, but James did remember he said something about not getting along with his mother, and that it was the reason he moved to his sister, who luckily took him in.

When James heard it, he didn’t think much of it, but now he realized that they both had somewhat troubling relationships with their mothers, and it made James smile. He had finally found someone who would understand him on that matter, who wouldn’t tell him to just be nicer to his mother, who wouldn’t make him feel bad because he didn’t like his mother that much. It was a very comforting thought, one that helped James fall asleep very easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if James' part feels weird and all, I remembered I wanted the last part in and realized that I hadn't mentioned it before


	33. Expectations

James was surprised when he came home the next day. Yes his mom was mad, very mad, and she wanted to punish him, but she didn’t know how. Grounding him didn’t work because he often locked himself up in his room, plus then he couldn’t go see his friends, and his mom was glad he finally made some. Taking Netflix from him didn’t work either because he would just go to his friends. Apart from those two things there wasn’t really anything else, and so this time there was no punishment for James. He couldn’t believe his luck, usually his mom always knew a way to punish him, which usually involved no Netflix, but he decided not to question it and just leave it be, hoping that she wouldn’t end up changing her mind.

Back at school, during lunchtime, Isco was still going on about the flower and the poem he got, he couldn’t talk about anything else. He had asked James and Iker multiple times if maybe they saw any sort of hint on the paper or in the poem, but Iker was convinced there was nothing. It was kind of adorable, watching Isco get so excited over a simple poem, finally finding someone to like as well, but it was starting to get a bit annoying. James got it, Isco got a poem from a secret admirer and Isco wanted to know who it was, that was all there was to it, yet Isco still managed to talk about it for hours.

So James decided it was time for action. He was going to ask Iker for help, but then he realized that Iker helped him with Cris, and Isco helped Iker with his crush, and so that it was time for James to help Isco, it made sense. James also kind of felt left out if he didn’t, he was the only one that didn’t help his friends yet, so he really felt like he was obligated to do it. It wouldn’t be that hard right?

When Isco came running to them and told them he had found another poem in his locker, James was ecstatic. If Isco’s secret admirer would leave more poem’s in his locker, then it was only a matter of watching who did it, and then James would know who it was.

Isco once again read the poem over and over, searching for a hint. Iker tried to point out there was no hint, it was just a love poem, but Isco didn’t want to believe him and kept looking. Iker just let him be, he wasn’t really in the mood for this kind of stuff. James stayed out of it as well, he thought it’d be nicer if Isco didn’t know that he wanted to help at all, so it would be even more of a surprise when James would be able to tell him who wrote the poems.

~

It was early in the morning, and James was waiting near Isco’s locker. He made sure he was at school extra early, so the chances of him catching the guy in the act would be bigger. He also made sure he kept his distance, standing too close might scare the guy off and he didn’t want that either. James looked at the time, and then took a book out of his back. He pretended to read it, so he would seem even less suspicious, and kept an eye on the locker from the corner of his eyes. James waited, time went by extremely slow, but nothing happened. Students passed by to grab their stuff, but none of them seemed to be slipping anything in Isco’s locker. By the time Isco arrived James gave up, he put the book away and walked up to his friend.

James tried the same trick again during lunchtime. He told Iker and Isco he was spending some time with Cris, and then hid nearby Isco’s locker. He waited and waited, but again no one passed by, and by the time he saw Isco again, his friend was waving another poem around.

James went over to plan B, yes he had come up with another way to find out, and he was very proud he did so. His plan involved studying the handwriting of the poem very well, and then check around in classes to see if anyone matched. It turned out to be harder than he thought, everyone’s handwriting looked the same, at one point he almost thought Cris was the one sending Isco those poems. He kept trying though, even managed to borrow one of the poem’s without Isco noticing, he had no idea how he pulled that off. He held the poem next to things that people wrote down, to see if it was the same, but that didn’t really help either.

James grew more and more frustrated, there had to be a way to find out who was writing those poems. The next thing he tried was watching people around them during lunch time. Maybe Isco’s admirer or their friends would keep an eye on them to see what Isco thought of the poem, or maybe they’d just be staring at Isco a lot, like he did with Cris before they became a couple. Well, he still found himself staring at Cristiano from time to time, and Cris definitely noticed, but he said it was very cute and that it was amusing to watch when it happened.

Iker was giving him weird looks when he kept looking around. James blushes slightly whenever he’d catch that, Iker made it look so easy, but when he did it himself he was way too obvious in his looking around. He wanted to ask Iker for help, but at the same time he wanted to do this by himself, he wanted to add to the friendship in a way, and this was the best way to do so. This plan ended up failing as well, James just couldn’t figure out if anyone actually was paying attention to them or if they just happen to stand close because there was no better place to stand, and so he gave up on that too.

James had given up, he really didn’t know how to help. Everything he came up with failed miserably. Maybe the person really didn’t want Isco to know who they were, maybe they were just never supposed to find out, maybe he did need Iker’s help to figure this out. It stressed James out so much that he ended up being at school really early again because he got confused with the time. He decided to just walk around again, to see if he could find anyone he knew. He walked past Isco’s locker, and almost didn’t notice the person standing there. James stopped and turned around, then peeked around the corner to find that said person was trying to put a piece of paper in Isco’s locker. James’ eyes widened and he paid close attention to the person. He didn’t know their name, but he definitely would be able to find the person again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first I was going to reveal who it was, but then I remembered that James barely knows anyone because he's new so he most likely wouldn't know their name


	34. Stars

For the first time since Isco got the poems, he wasn’t talking about them. He wasn’t talking about anything related to them either, he hadn’t even mentioned them yet all day long. It was honestly a miracle, because Isco was absolutely captivated by those poems. He would always find a way to sneak them into conversations, but not today. Today a different topic filled his mind.

James would’ve loved to find out what topic it was, but he was kind of busy thinking about stuff on his own. He now knew who Iker’s secret admirer was, or at least knew a way to find out who it was. He had no name, but he didn’t need one at all, he had a face, he would recognize the person immediately if he saw them again, and he knew that was enough to find Isco’s secret admirer.

The thing that was bothering James was how. How would he do it, what would he say, how would he bring it up or ask it. Should he do it himself or should he get some help? He wanted to exclude Isco and Iker to keep it a surprise, but he was worried he wouldn’t be able to do it by himself. He was worried that his stutter would get in the way, that Isco’s admirer would change their mind after finding out what a loser he had for a friend. Maybe he should write the person notes and put them in their locker..

“Hey James, will you come along too? I know it may be a bit soon, but my dad can get tickets for all of us, I’m sure it will be amazing” Isco asked James with a big smile on his face.

“Uh, y-yeah, sure” James answered. He didn’t know what he just agreed to, but his mind was too busy to worry about it.

“Will your dad drive? Or should I bring us there?” Iker asked Isco.

Isco completely ignored the question and started his usual rambling. “We should go by train, it’s very convenient. The station is like 10 minutes away on foot, it’s quite cheap, it’ll probably just be crowded in there for a bit, but it’ll be fine, I go by train with my dad all the time” he spoke.

“Alright, by train it is then” Iker responded.

~

James still didn’t know what they were going to do, and now he was starting to get a little worried. He knew it couldn’t be anything weird, he trusted his friends enough for that, but not knowing what it was, was making him nervous.

James snapped out of his thoughts when his phone buzzed.

-Hey, how about I pick you up tomorrow and we’ll drive to the train station together-

-Yeah sure, sounds good-

-Do you want to borrow a scarf from me?-

-What? Why?-

-Well I’m assuming you don’t have your own, lots of people bring a scarf to the match, to wave around when Real scores and all, I have a few laying around so we can both have one, Isco doesn’t need one because he was going on about how he’d wear a shirt and cap and everything that had the crest on it-

-Real..?-

James was starting to get very confused. He had no idea what was going on, were they going ice skating or something? Was that why Iker brought up scarfs? It was way too warm to wear a scarf though. He also had no idea what this real thing Iker was talking about was.

-Yes, Real Madrid, Isco got tickets for Real Madrid vs Barcelona, did you forget we’re going to a football match?-

Things were starting to make a little bit more sense. James remembered that Isco and Iker had talked about Real Madrid a few times already, but whenever they did James never really listened because he wasn’t interested in football. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to watch football, but he had already said yes and there was no way out now. He’d just deal with it, if it turned out to be really boring he could always just text Cristiano instead. He still didn’t understand the deal with the scarfs, but he decided to just go along with it.

-Oh, yeah the match, yeah a scarf is fine, thanks for lending me one-

On the other end, Iker knew something was up. He felt as if James didn’t really want to come along, he just agreed to do so for whatever reason. He’d make sure to keep an eye on James, if he turned out to be very bored while watching he could just distract James by talking to him. He’d just watch the match later at home.

~

James couldn’t believe his eyes when they arrived at the stadium. He had never seen a football stadium up close, and this one was huge. Well, it had to be to fit in all the people that were walking around the stadium. It was definitely a unique experience. James had never seen so many people together at once, it was a little overwhelming. Iker made sure he felt safe though, he had a good grip on his wrist, not too tight, and he dragged James through the crowd, following Isco and his father.

The inside of the stadium seemed even bigger than the outside, James continued to be amazed. The field was huge too, he was impressed with the amount of ground the players had to cover, and that for 90 minutes long. His opinion on football had already completely changed even before the match started.

They ended up sitting in a fairly good spot, somewhere along the middle of the field, not too close to it but not too far high up either. James felt he had a good view of the entire field and the players. He watched them walk onto the field, and do some warming up training. Iker pointed at a few people and explained who they were, some of the things they had achieved and other amazing facts James could barely believe. Iker also pointed out some of the Barcelona players that were good, and with that James knew it was going to be a very interesting match.

Isco was singing along with the crowd as loud as he could, while Iker kept explaining things to James during the match. James soon learned what offside meant, what corners and throw ins meant, what position everyone was playing in and what those positions meant. Iker pointed out mistakes, good skills, great passes, he pointed out who was playing well and who wasn’t, James felt like Iker was explaining him everything. He learned so much that he forgot half of it within a matter of minutes. James was very impressed with how much Iker knew, he seemed like a real expert to James, he felt like Iker would fit right in with all those players on the field.

In the end it was a lot of fun, Real Madrid ended up winning which made it even better, and James was surely going to watch more football after that night. He enjoyed watching Isco’s passion, he fit right in with the crowd, and he enjoyed Iker’s knowledge, he could easily become the Real Madrid coach in James’ opinion. He was kind of surprised how he didn’t realize how much fun football was until now, if he knew earlier he would’ve wanted to play the sport himself, but for now just watching, and supporting Real Madrid with his friends, was more than enough for James.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm unsure about the last bit, I wanted to describe the match more but I don't know what players to use and all, I hope it's still good


	35. Hold my hand

-I need your help-

-Alright, sure sunshine, with what?-

-Isco has a secret admirer and I think I know who it is, but I need your help to expose them-

-Okay, but, why ask me for help? Wouldn’t it be better to ask Iker?-

-No I want it to be a surprise-

-But it’s Isco’s secret admirer right?-

-Yes but I just want your help okay, please?-

-Of course I’ll help you, who is it?-

-Well I don’t know the name but I know the face-

-Okay, and do you want me to hold your hand or take the lead?-

-What?-

-Do you want me there as support or do you want me to do all the talking?-

-You do the talking of course, I don’t want to make Isco look stupid by stuttering-

-I’m sure that won’t happen-

-Cris please-

-Sorry, of course I’ll do that, just tell me when and where you need me-

-Thanks Crissie you’re the best!-

-You’re welcome sunshine ;)-

James put his phone to the side and smiled. Now there was no way that could get screwed up, the only bad thing that could happen was that Isco’s admirer wouldn’t want to reveal themselves, wouldn’t want Isco to know who they were, but maybe Cris could help with that as well. James just had to find them during lunchtime, which shouldn’t be too hard as he had seen the face in the cafeteria a few times already. The hardest part was probably keeping it all a secret from Iker and Isco, as he already had a few close calls in which he almost let his plans slip out of his mouth.

~

Iker looked up when James didn’t sit down at their usual table. He just stood there, awkwardly, waiting for Isco to stop talking.

“What’s going on James? “ Iker eventually said, interrupting Isco, to help James out.

“Uhm, I, I’m g-gonna, sit, no, hang out, stay with, uh, C-Cris, be with Cris, now” James spoke as his face turned red.

“Aw okay, then I’ll tell you all about the new poem I got during philosophy class, I think I’m onto who it could be!” Isco responded.

“Sure Isco” Iker replied, and then turned to James. “Have fun with your boyfriend” he then said.

James smiled and quickly walked away before either of them would say more to him. He could hear Isco ask what Iker meant, before the crowd drowned out their conversation. He walked to his locker, where he told Cris to meet him, and smiled when he saw he was already there. Cristiano hadn’t seen him yet, and so James creeped up on him and gave him a surprise hug from behind.

Cris jumped a little, not expecting to be greeted like that, and then smiled wide at his boyfriend. “You got me there” he chuckled.

James grinned and snickered lightly. “Ready?” he asked, to which Cristiano nodded.

James scanned the crowd first, and when he couldn’t really see anything he walked into it. Cris followed him, holding his hand so he wouldn’t lose James, as it could get pretty crowded in the cafeteria. James avoided getting close to Iker and Isco, he didn’t want them to get suspicious or anything, and prayed that the face he remembered wasn’t close to them either. After a few minutes of searching, James walked faster, and Cris had some trouble keeping up. He then stopped and pointed to a small group of friends.

“There” he whispered to Cris, even though no one else was paying attention to them anyway.

Cris looked at the group, he recognized a few people, knew he had some classes with at least one of them, but he didn’t know any names, and as far as he could remember he didn’t really talk to any of them either. Which was odd, because Cris was a very social person, and he was friendly with almost everyone he had classes with.

Cris felt a little push in his back, and turned around to find that James was trying to get him to walk closer to them. He chuckled lightly and then pulled James along, wrapping his arm around his waist.

“Hey, my boyfriend here” Cris kept smiling even though James jabbed his elbow in his side, “Was wondering which one of you is writing the poems to his friend, to Isco” he asked.

The students looked at each other, and then pushed one friend forward. The friend glared at everyone, and then looked at Cris, blushing lightly. “I-it’s me.. obviously..”.

James whispered something in Cristiano’s ear, and then Cris spoke up again. “Isco loves your poems, he talks about them all the time, and he really wants to meet you”.

The student turned around, and looked at the rest of the group. They all nodded and whispered to each other. The student then turned back to Cris and James and nodded shyly as well.

James smile grew wide, this was way easier than he thought it would be. He was so glad he brought Cris along, now all he had to do was to arrange for the two of them to meet and hope everything would go well, and then James could really feel accomplished.

~

“James just tell me what the surprise is! I can’t wait any longer! I want to know now! What is it? Why now? You’re wasting precious time I wanted to spend on finding my secret admirer!” Isco complained as James was dragging him along.

James said nothing, he kept quiet, he didn’t want to ruin the surprise. They were almost there anyway, almost at the location he told Isco’s admirer to wait. The moment was almost there, and James was both very excited and very nervous.

Iker was following along behind them. He had no idea what was going on either, but he was looking forward to what was about to happen. James did a great job on keeping all of this a secret, because Iker didn’t even see this coming, while he usually is very observant.

James finally stopped and turned to Isco. “C-close your eyes” he said, as he grabbed Isco’s hands and put them in front of his eyes for him. Isco was reluctant at first, but after saying it a few more times and hitting Isco softly in the side after he still wouldn’t listen, Isco gave up and did what James told him to do. James grabbed the student that had been waiting around the corner, and cleared his throat. “M-meet your, secret admirer”.

Isco lowered his hands and opened his eyes. His stomach quickly filled with butterflies as he laid his eyes on the person that had written him wonderful poems for the last few weeks. He surely didn’t expect this, but it was exciting, he had kind of expected a girl to be writing the poems, but he thought the boy that was standing in front of him, all shy, was very cute. Isco took a step closer and held his hand out.

“H-hi, my name is Francisco, well that’s my real name but everyone just calls me Isco because it’s shorter and easier to remember. But you probably already knew that was my name else you wouldn’t be able to send me the flower and the poem on Valentine’s day.. I really like your poems! They’re so sweet and nice and they make me feel nice too and thank you for writing them to me, and thank you for showing your face and you’re really cute” Isco smiled, his last words making a small blush appear on his cheeks.

The boy watched him and giggled lightly, then grabbed Isco’s hand. “H-hi, m-my name is..” He spoke softly, until he was rudely interrupted.

“Asier?! It’s fucking Asier?!” Iker yelled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And just after I wrote this it was confirmed that Asier is going back to Real Sociedad OTL On one hand I'm happy because it will hopefully give him more playing time, on the other I'm sad because now he can't bond with Isco anymore (not that I actually ship it, but it would've been fun to see more moments between the two)


	36. Precious treasure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god I'm sorry I'm a little slow lately, I shouldn't have started playing The Legend of Zelda games because now I can't stop, it's also why Mending Broken Dreams hasn't been updated, I've barely even written anything for it (I haven't given up on it yet)  
> I promise I'll try to not play it every chance I get anymore so I have more time to write

James quickly pulled Iker away before he could say anything else. He didn’t know why Iker thought it was a good idea to yell, perhaps he had a good reason, but James didn’t want him to ruin the big surprise, didn’t want things to go awkward between Isco and his secret admirer the first time they actually met. Iker struggled, of course, cursed at James too and said something about not trusting Asier, but all James cared about right now was giving Isco some space.

Isco was about to open his mouth but Asier beat him to it. “It’s okay, let’s just, uhm, go for.. a walk?” he suggested.

Isco smiled and nodded. He kept holding Asier’s hand as they walked around the neighbourhood. They walked in silence at first, both too shy to say anything. Asier kept wanting to say something, but he didn’t know what. All of this happened a lot sooner than he had planned, he had hoped to find out some things about what Isco liked before he would introduce himself, so that he could avoid these kind of situations. He wasn’t exactly someone who would take initiative and would be able to just ask Isco all about what he liked.

Meanwhile Isco’s mind was going crazy. There were so many things he wanted to talk about, so many things he wanted to say or wanted to ask, that he didn’t know where to start. For once he thought about what to say, instead of just going into his usual rambling. He wanted to make a good impression, this was the first time he heard of anyone liking him and he didn’t want Asier to change his mind. It took him some time to find a safe topic to talk about.

“So, I’ll have to thank James because, without him I uh, I never would’ve found out it was you, I thought I knew who it was but I was completely wrong” he said, then chuckled a little at his own stupidity. “But, I uh, I’m glad it’s you, because, because this feels really nice” he continued, then squeezed Asier’s hand lightly.

Asier blushed slightly at the gesture. “T-that’s good, and it, it does” he responded, as he moved a little closer to Isco.

“Hey uhm, you want to come over to my home? I think uh, Well I, I’d feel more at ease there, I think, it’s not because of you it’s just being outside and I don’t have my stuff and yeah..” Isco asked, then bit his lip. That sounded stupid, he should’ve said something else, what if Asier thinks..

“Yeah sure, I’d actually.. prefer that too” Asier answered, before Isco could finish his thoughts.

~

“W-wh- w-why?!” James stuttered as he glared at Iker.

“James you don’t fucking understand! That guy is going to break Isco’s heart!” Iker yelled in response.

“N-no! s-sh-ss-shut u-up! D-do you n-not s-ss-see ho-ow h-ha-hap-ppy I-Isco l-loo-ooked?!” James yelled back.

“But-“.

“N-no b-b-buts! C-c-can’t yo-ou b-be ha-ha-appy f-fo-or y-your f-fr-frien-d?!” James cut Iker off. “Y-you c-can b-b-be so-o s-stu-upid so-om-me t-ti-imes!”.

Iker opened his mouth to defend himself and his actions, but when he saw the look James gave him he closed it again. He had to admit, maybe what he did was somewhat stupid, maybe he should’ve done things differently. It wasn’t because he didn’t want Isco to be happy thought, he did want that, he wanted the best for his friends, and there was the problem. He knew Asier wouldn’t be the best for Isco, he knew things about Asier the other two didn’t know, and he wanted to warn Isco about it, it was just the way he did it that was pretty stupid.

“Sorry.. “ Iker eventually said as he looked down to the ground. He was pretty ashamed of his actions now, he should’ve thought about it first, but he let his anger take control without resisting at all. He’d have to work on that, and at the same time he should keep an eye on Asier and make sure that he wouldn’t hurt Isco.

James accepted the apology in the form of a hug. Iker’s arms now automatically wrapped themselves around James’ body, he had finally gotten used to all the hugs his two friends gave him. James patted his back and Iker let out a sigh.

“Come, let’s, let’s have some, fun n-now” James smiled.

~

Isco slowly opened the door to his room. He peeked inside and already saw several things he wish he could hide before letting Asier in, but he just had to hope Asier would either not notice or not care. He opened the door further to let Asier take a look as well, and then stepped inside. Asier looked around in awe, Isco’s room was big and cool and nice and he was instantly jealous of the giant tv screen. He walked around, carefully touching some of the things in Isco’s room, and ended up picking up a stuffed animal. Isco’s face immediately turned red and he opened his mouth to come up with an excuse, but Asier’s smile kept him quiet.

“I thought I was the only one that liked stuffed animals, my brother says they’re for little girls, but there’s just something comforting about them” he said as he squeezed the stuffed animal lightly.

“Yeah, I know, it’s something soft to hug when no one is around” Isco responded.

“Exactly” Asier smiled.

Isco stepped closer and took the stuffed animal from Asier. “This one’s very special to me, my mom gave it to me” he explained.

“I have one that’s special to me too! I got it as a kid from my best friend, it was always my favourite, but then he moved away and it became very special to me, because it reminded me of him” Asier replied.

“This one reminds me of my mom too” Isco said. He put it back where it belonged and then looked at Asier. “What do you want to do? I have lots of video games we could play, unless you want to look around a bit more” he smiled.

“No, video games is fine, I just don’t really play them, so you’ll have to tell me which ones are good” Asier answered.

“How about I just grab a bunch of them and then you get to decide which one looks like the most fun?” Isco suggested.

Asier nodded and smiled. He watched as Isco opened a bunch of boxes and then pulled several video games out of them. He put them all next to each other so Asier could easily see them, but something else had caught Asier’s eyes.

“You have Pokémon games!” He gasped.

“Yeah I do, I love Pokémon” Isco chuckled.

“Me too!” Asier answered excitingly. “Oh that is so cool, what else do you have of Pokémon?” he then asked.

Isco’s smile grew wide as he stood up and looked around his room. He never imagined things to go like this, he never would’ve thought that this was how he’d meet the first person he’d want to date, that they would be like this, and that the feelings he would get would be like this. Sure he had some idea because he had asked his mother when he was little, and even though she explained it very well Isco never really knew what it would feel like, and even thought she exaggerated a little, but now it all made sense.


	37. Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry if there are any mistakes in this, by the end of the chapter I realized that my mind kept switching to the present and I had to change several things to make sure it was in the past tense like it should be, though I feel like there still are some mistakes in it

James made Iker apologize to Isco the next day. Well, actually Iker was already planning to apologize for yelling, but James also wanted him to say sorry for judging Asier without really knowing him. Iker wanted to object, say he did know Asier, and knew where this would be going, but James made him shut up after he said sorry. Isco could tell it wasn’t a 100% genuine, and so he accepted the apology with a shrug. After that James let it rest.

Iker was very pissed off though, he kept quiet during lunch time and the lessons that followed. He was mad, mad at Asier for already being able to wrap Isco nicely around his finger, but he was also mad at Isco and James for not listening. He wasn’t even able to get the words out of his mouth before they shushed him. Iker thought that they’d know he didn’t mean to be rude to Isco, and that it wasn’t an attack on Isco, he thought they knew that he cared about them and that he wanted them to be safe and happy, but apparently they didn’t. Apparently they were sure that whatever he was going to say was mean and rude and didn’t need to be heard, apparently it didn’t even cross their minds once that Iker just wanted to warn them.

Iker considered sitting alone during the next lunchtime. He was still mad and he was sure that James and Isco would be glad if they didn’t have his annoying face sitting next to them. Though at the same time, the thought of Asier being able to poison their minds with ease while he wasn’t there also wasn’t very pleasing. Without even realizing it he had already walked to their usual spot, and when he stopped right in front of the table he decided he might as well sit with them now, because walking away at that point would be a terrible thing to do.

Isco was doing his usual rambling, and James was listening to it as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Iker stopped paying attention once the name Asier reached his ears, and so instead he grabbed a little notebook and did some homework. James and Isco didn’t seem to mind, as they put no effort into trying to get Iker to join their conversation, although knowing the topic it wasn’t much of a surprise either.

At first Iker didn’t notice them, he was busy thinking and writing those thoughts down, but when he took a little breather to clear his mind he could feel them burning into the back of his head. He looked around, and soon found the person he was looking for. Arbeloa was keeping an eye on him, half smirk on his face as he was talking to someone. Iker knew that smirk all too well, it meant that whatever he had planned was going the right way, it meant that he was getting closer to what he wanted. That usually meant screwing Iker in some sort of way, and the only way Iker could think of right now involved his friends.

For some reason Arbeloa moved, so that he couldn’t directly look at Iker anymore without getting caught, but by moving the person he was talking to became visible. Iker’s eyes widened when he saw who it was. He knew he couldn’t be trusted, he knew he was involved in it somehow, he knew Asier was just friendly with Isco so he could fuck things up. Iker immediately stood up and walked away, leaving a very confused Isco and James behind.

They tried to make him stay, Isco even managed to grab Iker’s wrist but Iker jerked it free with zero effort, scaring Isco in the process. Isco immediately looked at James for answers, but James was just as confused, and so just answered with a shrug.

“Would you.. think he’s jealous..? Because he’s the only one who doesn’t have someone now..? I mean I know he has his crush but he barely talks about his crush and his crush lives far away so in a way he’s still.. alone you know.. could that be it..? I don’t know why else he would react like that.. It surely can’t be Asier because Asier is the most shy person I’ve ever met and he’s very nice and sweet too, he wouldn’t harm a fly” Isco mumbled to James.

James shrugged and sighed. He never experienced friend drama before because he had no friends, but to him it did seem like Iker was overreacting to the whole situation, surely the innocent shy person he had seen so far couldn’t do anything bad, right..?

~

After being sent home by the principal because he couldn’t control his anger, Iker made his way to his room. Thank god his parents weren’t home from work yet, because he still felt like he was about to blow. He turned his computer on and started playing some music to try and calm himself down. Martín jumped on his lap and meowed at him, demanding attention, but after Iker ignored him he jumped off and disappeared.

A few minutes later Iker got pulled out of his thoughts by his cat meowing again. He looked down at his feet and found Martín proudly sitting in front of a dead bird. “Ugh, Martín, really?” he sighed as he took his headphones off so that he could pick up the corpse and throw it outside. Martín followed him along the way, meowing a few times, only to jump on his lap again once Iker was back in his room. Iker sighed again and gave in to Martín’s demands, which meant scratching his head.

“Why do you always do that, whenever I’m mad you always bring me dead stuff and pretend like you just fought a crocodile and won, is it to cheer me up? Are you being silly to make me smile? Or are you bringing me food to feel better? Or is it all just a coincidence and I’m looking too far into it?” Iker mumbled as he watched Martín push his head against his hand while purring.

At that moment a notification popped up on his screen. Iker looked up and saw that he had a message from his crush. He hesitated for a moment, contemplating if talking is a good idea while feeling angry, but then clicked on the chat box.

-Hey! You’re home early, how was your day?-

-Horrible-

-Oh, I’m really sorry to hear that, do you want to talk about it?-

-No, not really, it’s a long story and I don’t want to get angry again-

Iker feared he screwed up after he got no new messages for a few minutes. His fingers hoovered over his keyboard, as he was trying to think of something to say. He felt like he had to apologize, but he wasn’t sure for what, he could just say sorry but that just didn’t feel good enough.

-Well, if you want and all, we could get on cam now, you’re probably not in a good mood but I could try and cheer you up?-

Iker’s heart beat loudly in his chest at those words. They hadn’t seen each other yet, there was always a reason not to, or better said, Iker’s parents were always a reason not to, but now they weren’t home yet, and they wouldn’t be home for another hour.

-Sure-

Iker swallowed harshly as he made sure his little camera was facing the right way. He also changed his sitting position in a more.. normal one, feet on the floor while facing his computer screen. He tried to calm himself down, to make himself appear less nervous on camera, and then he accepted the video call.

The second he saw his crush smile at him he forgot all his problems, he forgot all the bad things that had happened to him that day. He looked even better than he remembered, and Iker found himself smiling widely at the beautiful person that was his crush.


	38. Abandoned

Talking actually helped Iker feel a whole lot better. At first it was just talking about random things, getting used to talking face to face again, well there was a computer screen in between them but still. It was really nice, it was just like on vacation, everything went so well and so natural, and before Iker even realized it he was talking about the things that were bothering him. He told his crush all about Arbeloa, about all the things he had already done to him, and about how it still wasn’t enough and Arbeloa just wouldn’t stop until he would’ve completely broken Iker.

He talked about Asier, about how he met him and what he was like before Iker befriended James and Isco. Then he went on about how James and Isco didn’t even give him a chance to warn them about Asier, how Isco was too in love to listen and how James seemed to side with Isco without any reason. He also mentioned that Arbeloa somehow tied into all of that, which to be honest didn’t really come as a surprise, he should’ve seen that coming.

By the time he was done ranting he let out a big sigh. He never thought talking would make him feel so much better, he never knew that to just have someone that listens could be so amazing. What was even better was that his crush gave him advice, told him how he could maybe get his two friends to listen. It mainly involved being calm and making sure they knew he just wanted the best for them, which were both kind of difficult to do for Iker. He rarely could control his anger, and he wasn’t really good with emotional talks either, but he promised he’d give it a try before giving up.

He felt much better the next day at school, he was calm and collected and he was ready to have the talk. He already thought about the best ways to say what he wanted to say, and he was fairly certain this was going to turn out okay. He was sure they would listen and understand his worries and at least take it into consideration. Maybe they’d immediately push Asier away, maybe they would confront him about it, or maybe they’d just wait and see if Asier actually would do the things Iker expected him to do, all those things were fine with Iker, as long as they would just listen.

Except that by the time he had a chance to talk, during lunch time, he couldn’t find his friends. He figured that maybe they just went to their lockers, maybe James wanted to spent a little bit more time with Cris before joining them, maybe Isco would do the same, so he shrugged it off and sat down at their usual spot.

Halfway through lunch break, Iker was starting to get worried. He still hadn’t seen either of his friends, he had scanned the crowd multiple times and couldn’t find them. Surely by now they would be done with going to their lockers, or whatever else they would do during lunch time. Usually they’d be there by now.

Iker sighed and tried to focus on his memories, maybe one of them told him that they were going to do something during lunch time, maybe one of them had mentioned that they wanted to sit outside, or that James wanted them to sit with Cris or something. It didn’t matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember anything like that happening, he couldn’t remember either of them telling him anything about their plans, and so there was only one option left.

They had abandoned him.

Arbeloa had really done it this time, in just a matter of days he managed to get the two friends, of whom he thought would never fall for his tricks, to hate his guts so much that they just left him without saying a word.

~

James was growing impatient as Cristiano just kept talking with his friends. He had asked his boyfriend if he could sit with him because he wanted to talk, but so far the only real talking that has been done was just an introduction and then straight to the normal lunch break talks. James didn’t want any of that, he had important matters to discuss that couldn’t wait, and so he started pulling on Cris’ sleeve to get his attention.

When Cris finally looked up at him, he held up his phone, which was his way of saying that he wanted to talk about something important, as he wanted to get his point across as soon and as good as possible, and he just couldn’t do that with his stutter. Cris caught on, excused himself to his friends and then walked to a less crowded place, where they wouldn’t get interrupted while they talked.

-Iker is acting weird and he’s acting very weird towards Asier, Isco’s admirer who probably is now his boyfriend, and I don’t know why he’s doing it and I need your help to figure out a way to make them get along-

~

Isco was very nervous. Four pairs of eyes were staring at him, judging him. He wanted to hold Asier’s hand, but Asier told him that he didn’t like public display of affection, or well, he didn’t like to do anything that could attract attention to himself, because attention meant that people would be talking about you and he didn’t like that at all. So Isco had to deal with it with Asier simply standing next to him.

“Alright, so, this is Isco, well, you already know it’s him” he blushed slightly at that, “But he doesn’t know who you are so I’m going to introduce you to him” Asier said. He pointed to his first friend in line and spoke up. “That is Dani, then next to him is Nacho, Jesé, and last but not least, Javier, or as we call him, Chicharito”.

“Chikorita” Isco tried to repeat, causing Asier to giggle lightly.

Asier’s friend didn’t seem too happy with the new version of his nickname, but because Asier thought it was funny he let it slide and just gave Isco a short glare.

“Well, hi, I’m Isco, or Fransisco if you want to use my full name but no one ever does that so Isco is just fine” Isco said as his usual introduction.

“We know quite a lot about you, Asier has been going on about you every single day for the past year” Dani started before he was interrupted by Chicharito.

“You mean one and a half year” he quickly added, then signalled Dani to continue.

“Alright, fine, for the past one and a half year, so we’re really glad Asier finally listened to us and made a move, and we’re even more glad that it all turned out very nice” Dani explained.

“What? You’ve been crushing on me for that long and I never knew?” Isco asked Asier, who turned his head away to hide his blush.

“Keep in mind though, that if you break his heart we will come after you” Jesé warned him.

Isco didn’t listen though, still too surprised over the fact that someone had liked him for over a year and he never suspected a thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished playing my games and so I have a lot more time to write, and that resulted in an early chapter for once  
> When I wrote Iker's part I wanted to end it there because I felt like it fit the chapter title more, but at the same time it was too short and I wanted people to know that in reality James and Isco were a little stupid and expected the other to be there with Iker, and that it wasn't an intentional thing, and well you know what I eventually did


	39. Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sick and that's probably why this seems sort of eh to me, I just don't know what I don't like about it

Iker stayed away from his friends, or well, probably ex friends by now, for the rest of that day. Not because he was mad at them for leaving, but because he was mad at himself. He was mad because he was so stupid to think he had more time, time to think about what to do, what to say, how to try and convince them that something fishy was going on and Asier was definitely involved in it. He should’ve warned them the day he knew Arbeloa was making plans to make his life miserable again, he should’ve told them all about Arbeloa, about Asier, and about the person in between those two who started the misery, the one person that made Arbeloa’s plans a hundred times more likely to work. But he didn’t and now he was paying the ultimate price.

Iker was mad and sad and he didn’t want anyone to see him like that, which was why he hid away during lunch break, so he could let out some of those emotions without anyone noticing, all so that he could look calm and fine when he had to go back to the classroom.

James and Isco noticed, of course they did, but once again they let their stupidity guide their actions, and so they decided to just leave Iker alone for the day. They figured something bad must’ve happened, that maybe Iker wanted some time to breathe and collect his thoughts, and that he probably didn’t want to hear them talk about Asier. They had no idea that they were the problem, that they were the reason Iker was feeling that way. As far as they knew they hadn’t done anything wrong, they just spend some time with their boyfriends for a change.

They were worried though, since Iker pretty much ignored them during classes as well. It wasn’t like he refused to answer him, they didn’t really try to talk to him either, but usually he’d talk to them, or try to help them whenever they had to work on their homework, and he didn’t do that this time. They decided that they’d try and talk to him about it tomorrow, that seemed like the best idea right now, then maybe he would’ve calmed down somewhat so he wouldn’t be yelling at them. What exactly they would talk about, they didn’t know yet, but they figured that by the time they would go to sleep they would have an answer to that.

~

Iker immediately made his way home after school. He dumped his bag in his room and grabbed his sports bag, put some food in Martín’s bowl and then left the house again. He knew training didn’t start for another hour, but he needed something to distract him, and going to the fields was the best place to find distraction. He was almost certain someone would be around who would want to help him train, maybe he could even join the training of a different team for a while until his own team showed up. Whatever would happen, he’d be able to keep himself busy.

This was the one thing Arbeloa hadn’t been able to fully take from him yet. Sure, his dream suffered a major setback, but it was still possible. He would just have to work harder to get there, but he was prepared to do anything to make his dream come true. It had been his dream since he was a little kid, and it was the only thing that has always stuck with him, the only thing that was always there for him, that could always help him forget his troubles. The one thing he was happy with, was proud of, the thing he’d always have no matter what happened.

After parking his car and changing his clothes in the locker room, he made his way onto the pitch. He took a ball from the shed and started doing some tricks. There weren’t a lot of people around yet, and he wanted to warm up a little before putting his gloves on. First he tried to keep the ball from touching the ground for as long as he could, it had become an easy task, he knew exactly where to hit it to keep it from going all over the place, and so he made it a little more difficult for himself. Kicking the ball up while standing on one foot, then switching to the other, making himself turn around every time the ball went up in the air, even using his shoulders and chest to keep the ball up. After a while he had enough and dropped the ball to the floor to do some stretching.

Iker had trained by himself for half an hour when his teammates arrived at the club and made their way inside to put the proper clothes on. One would think that every football team that has been together for a while is close, and well, the team was, but without Iker. Before Iker joined, they had been together for several years and had formed a tight group, so when Iker arrived they didn’t want anything to do with him, they didn’t need another player, their team was fine the way it was. Even after Iker showed off his skills with every training and match they did together, they still didn’t have a lot of interest in having him join their group. They thought Iker was weird, distant, and they didn’t appreciate Iker telling them what to do during matches. Iker didn’t mind too much, sure if would’ve been nice to be part of a group again, but as long as he could play matches he was fine. He didn’t need them to like him to be good, he just needed them to be in the right positions so the shots weren’t completely impossible to stop.

He got along with the coach though, who saw the talent in the young boy and wanted to help him to the best of his abilities. That coach was the whole reason Iker didn’t get kicked out, and he would be forever grateful for that. He had private training once a week with the man, to try and improve his skills even further. The coach wasn’t very good though, and so the amount of things Iker could learn was limited, but it was the only option he had for now. It was the only way to make his dream come true.


	40. Rated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I'm late with uploading, I just wasn't in a good mood to write, plus I had to come up with a good idea for the last part, which took me a while too

James sat with him the next day. He was completely confused as to why, he was sure James and Isco hated him and didn’t want to be friends anymore, yet there was James, sitting at the same table as him, even though he sat somewhere else than where they’d usually sit.

James was staring at him, it was kind of creepy, Iker didn’t know what to do about it. He knew James wanted him to talk, but he didn’t really feel like talking. He was still mad, at himself, and he wanted to figure out a way to fix all of it and explain everything to James before he’d talk about something else. Since he had no idea how he would do that he kept quiet. Maybe he’d talk when James would talk to him, but he was fairly sure James was doing the same thing.

James didn’t know what to do, Cris didn’t really know what to do either and so James really didn’t have any plan at all. He sat with Iker hoping that everything would be alright again, but Iker still wasn’t talking. James knew something had happened to cause all of this, he just had no idea what, or who caused it. He was fairly sure that Isco and Asier stayed away from him, so it couldn’t be them, and apart from Asier he didn’t know who else could’ve made him mad, or just, like this. 

James didn’t even realize he was staring at Iker, he was just so keen on finding a solution that he was completely lost in his thoughts. All sorts of things ran through his mind, but nothing he came up with was a good solution. There had to be something that could fix things, maybe they just had to sit down and talk about it, about everything. Although Isco would just side with Asier and James wasn’t sure what Asier would do but he also knew that Iker would probably accuse Asier of.. something. Maybe it was better if Isco wouldn’t be there, and James knew that he wouldn’t talk much either so, maybe, maybe just a talk between Asier and Iker. Yes, that seemed like a good idea, he just needed to figure out how to do that.

~

James didn’t have to think about it for long. Cris sat down right next to him during the next class, and when they started working on homework, he turned his head towards James and started whispering.

“Hey, remember Mister Sanders said something about an upcoming assignment? People have been saying it’s a group project, if it is, do you want to team up with me?” he mumbled quietly.

James looked at him and smiled. “Of-of course, with uh, who else uhm.. would, t-team up, work with.. uh, y-yeah” James whispered back.

Cris let out a quiet chuckle. “Well, I thought maybe you’d want to team up with your friend, Iker, if you want we can form a group with him, Marcelo will be fine on his own and Fàbio, well, Marcelo will have to look after Fàbio for a change” Cristiano muttered.

James nodded, and then it hit him. He had to go and find Asier before Biology class.

~

“Alright students, I know you’re tired of hearing me talk all the time, and I’m tired of constantly lecturing people who aren’t listening, so today we’re going to switch things up a little. I will give you an assignment on the topic we’re working on, it won’t be graded, unfortunately I’m not allowed to do that, but I am allowed to give away some extra points. So this is how it goes, you will form groups of two, and you will create a new animal species, you will explain the evolution of this species, and the four groups with the most creative idea, plus the best explanation, will get extra points for the next test. You’ll have to present your creation to the entire class, and I’ll let you judge with me, partially, so keep that in mind. Now, go form groups and then come to me, and I will tell you when you have to present your creation, I will keep in mind that some of you will have more time than others.”.

Once the teacher was done explaining, the whole class stood up and ran around to find themselves a partner. Iker looked around, looking for James, but when he finally found him he was already talking to Cris, waiting in line to let the teacher know they wanted to work together. Iker sat down again with a sigh, he’d just wait until someone was left with no partner, and then team up with them, or better said, do all the work while the other person just sat back and watched, because that’s how these things usually went for Iker. Sure people were afraid of him and his cursing, but they also knew that he was smart, got all the good grades, and would work hard to make sure even every group assignment was graded with his usual grades.

What he didn’t expect though, was someone walking to him while others were still searching. It wasn’t hard to figure out who it was, even though the person was looking down, only Asier was that shy. Iker turned his head away, there was no way in hell he would team up with him, he’d rather work alone.

“Do you-“ Asier barely got the words out of his mouth when Iker cut him off.

“No.” he stated, his head still turned the other way.

Asier took a deep breath. “Look, J-.. So-.. I am not asking anyone else.. so in the end you’ll have to team up with me anyway.. I uhm.. I want us to talk, about what happened and.. other things, so..” he explained quietly.

Iker thought about what he said, and he came to the conclusion that, either he had to find someone else to work with, or just accept Asier’s offer and deal with whatever he had planned. He figured that whatever was going to happen couldn’t be that bad, Arbeloa had already done the worst things, and the only things Iker really cared about now were football and his two friends, and since Asier would be working with him, he wouldn’t be able to do anything bad to his friends. Sure Asier could sabotage the whole thing, but Iker didn’t need the extra points, it would be nice, but his grade for Biology was good, and a few less points wouldn’t do that much damage.

“Fine” Iker eventually answered.

Asier nodded and went to the teacher to announce their partnership.

~

“So.. uhm.. do you have anything in mind yet..?” Asier asked carefully.

“No, I’m still thinking” Iker answered coldly.

“Okay, uhm, what about something cool, like, a poison breathing dragon?” Asier suggested.

“And how would any animal we know about evolve into a dragon huh? What reptile would grow wings, why would it grow wings, what would be beneficial to tiny beginnings of wings on any reptile? There is no way any reptile will grow wings, they’re doing just fine on the ground. Plus it’s not original, everyone else will be trying to create a dragon, we’ll be more likely to get those points if we’re original” Iker explained.

“Oh.. yeah.. okay, well, what about, we explain how uhm, like, creatures of which people think are real but they have no real proof, like Nessy..?” Asier responded.

“Again, not original, and I don’t think the teacher would approve of that” Iker answered.

“What about a Pokémon..?” Asier tried next.

“So far the only thing animals can do is create poison, it’ll be too hard to explain why and how animals would develop the ability to spit fire or control ice or whatever” Iker sighed. “Are you even trying, or are you just talking so that I can’t think?!” he then snapped.

“Sorry” Asier whispered quietly, as he looked down. He wanted to explain that he wasn’t trying to be mean or anything, but decided it was best to just keep quiet.

It was silent for a while, Asier didn’t speak because he didn’t want Iker to get mad, plus he couldn’t come up with anything good. Iker was quiet because he was thinking, he knew he would come up with something good, he just needed some time to think, he just needed something to inspire him. He thought about different animals, about specific features, about how he could combine certain things together.

After about 10 minutes of silence between the two of them, Asier took a small book out of his bag and opened it. He looked for an empty page and started scribbling away. He figured that he might as well do something to kill some time, as he was fairly sure everything he came up with was too unoriginal or downright impossible. He’d just use the internet for something good once he got home, they had a few days to come up with something anyway.

Iker’s eyes followed the movement, and he ended up staring at some of Asier’s drawings. The mess that Asier was working on slowly took shape. “Hold up, what are you drawing?” Iker suddenly asked.

Asier looked up to make sure Iker was talking to him. “Uh, it’s just, a Grotle, a Pokémon..” Asier answered slowly.

“That’s it, we could do that, a giant turtle with a shell that can hold other lifeforms, it could be beneficial to attract food” Iker smiled. He looked up at Asier, wanting to say something, but he wasn’t sure what. A ‘good job’ or ‘thank you’ felt really out of place, but Asier did help him think of something. He just had to say something.

“That, you’re a good drawer” Iker eventually said.


	41. Teamwork

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since today's match was a little, lackluster, I thought I'd cheer you all up with a new chapter! (Yes I finally wrote again)  
> I won't really stick to the one chapter per week schedule anymore, right now there's a lot going on for me and I just want to take my time making these chapters good. I will try to not take forever to update but I have to figure out what will work for me right now

James sat down at the same table as Iker again. He had dragged Isco along, who was almost glued to Asier's side at this point, by convincing him that everything was good now, because James was confident about his plan and he was sure that Iker's opinion on Asier had already changed. Isco wasn't sure though, he needed to see to believe, and he now also wanted Iker to apologize again, because according to Asier there was no reason for Iker to act the way he had been.

Iker was mad though, again. He wasn't sure if he was mad at James or still at himself, though it most likely was himself. He was just mad that James didn't tell him he wanted to work with Cristiano. If he just told Iker, just asked, just mentioned it, then it would've been fine, then Iker wouldn't be mad about it. He also couldn't help but feel like James had something to do with Asier working with him, since the last time he spoke to Asier was when he was still friends with that backstabber. So he gave his friends the silent treatment again. It probably wasn't the best thing to do, but by now he was already convinced that sooner or later they'd turn against him, and that there was nothing he could do to stop it.

James sunk back in his chair a bit. Iker's silence meant that nothing had changed yet, maybe things had even gotten worse. He thought for sure that talking would've helped. Maybe they needed a bit more time, like how James was quiet the first time he spend an hour working together with Cris at school. Maybe they needed a little push like he did, but he had no idea how to make it happen. He didn't even know if he had time for that, he couldn't just abandon his project with Cris, even though he was sure Cristiano would understand, it would be very unfair.

Isco didn't care though, that Iker wasn't talking, because then at least he wasn't saying anything rude about Asier. He really didn't understand how Iker could dislike Asier so much, he was just a sweet innocent shy boy that likes to see people smile. He could never imagine Asier doing anything mean to anyone, ever. It seemed more like the other way around, people seemed to often be mean to him because he was so shy and sweet and innocent, or at least, that's what Asier's friends told him. He was getting suspicious about the whole thing, he wasn't sure why Iker was being this way but he was fairly sure it wasn't because Asier did something.

In the end they all just sat there, awkwardly staying silent because they either didn't know what to say or just didn't want to talk. James hated that he didn't know what to do, he didn't even know what to say to Isco, and Isco was barely even paying attention, he was just on his phone the whole time. Iker wasn't much help either, he was scribbling stuff in his notebook, he didn't even look at James and Isco once. James rubbed his face, he'd just have to ask Cris for help again, because he was definitely out of ideas now.

~

Iker was really glad that he had PE that day, it was a good way to get some of those frustrations out of his system. It was even better that today was one of those days where they could choose what they wanted to do, and of course Iker chose the one thing he loved the most. One would think that everyone wanted Iker on their team, and they did, for a change, but not for the reasons one would think. Sure Iker was amazing at football and his team would usually win the little matches, but the main reason people wanted to be on his team was so that they wouldn't have to go up against him. They didn't want their egos to be shattered by Iker nutmegging them several times, getting past them with ease and scoring a goal most of the time. Even though Iker was best in goal, he still managed to do just fine in a forward position. This time he mainly defended, mostly because he wanted to keep the annoying moans and groans from the other team to a minimum. Winning wasn't all that important to him at school, as long as he just had some fun, and knowing that he could easily block every shot was more than enough fun.

By the end of the PE lesson he felt better again. Being able to focus on something other than his problems was always nice, and he was already looking forward to going home so he could distract himself even more. He took his time changing clothes, lunchtime was up next and he still didn't really feel like talking to James and Isco, so the more time he wasted in the dressing room the less time he had to spend in the awkwardness their friendship had become.

He actually really wanted to talk to them, explain what was going on and why he disliked Asier so much, but he was also angry and frustrated at everything that was happening. He needed some time, and he was sure that it would be better to give his two friends some time as well. Maybe once they all calmed down about the situation they could try and fix their friendship, that is if Arbeloa still wouldn't have been able to convince them to hate Iker.

The dressing room was almost empty by now, it was just Iker, two friends that were busy talking with each other, and one more guy that seemed to be done but still hadn't left. When Iker looked up he noticed that it wasn't someone from his class, someone had sneaked into the dressing room to talk to him, and that person was Asier. As soon as the other two students left Asier walked up to Iker. He held his head low as he was desperately holding on to something.

"Uhm, I wanted to show you something.. I made some sketches for our Biology project.. I thought it might help us get those extra points..." Asier said quietly as he held his sketchbook out to Iker.

At first Iker just stared at Asier. He didn't really wanted to look at the sketches, he really didn't care, and he was sure that everything he had already come up with would be enough to be in the top 4. However, Iker's curiosity to Asier's drawing talent got the better of him and so he took the book. He flipped through the pages and was impressed with what he saw.

"I made several sketches to show how the evolution would go, I made them for both land and sea, I don't know if that's what you had in mind but I can change it if you want" Asier explained as he played with his fingers.

"This.. This is really good" Iker mumbled. He looked at the sketches several times as he picked up his bag and was ready to head out the door, but when he tried to push it open, it wouldn't budge. He tried a few more time, with more force, but nothing helped. When he stepped back to think, he could hear chuckles coming from the other side of the door, and that was all he needed to know exactly what was going on.

"Are you fucking kidding me, we're fucked, we're goddamn locked in, and it's fucking lunchtime so no one will even fucking bother to come look for us for half a goddamn hour!". He dropped the sketchbook, Asier quickly picked it up, and then turned to the one person with him in the dressing room. "You, you're fucking in on this aren't you? I bet they sent you in here to distract me so those sons of bitches could have a goddamn laugh out there! I fucking knew you were a piece of shit!" Iker yelled as he stepped closer to Asier.

Asier wasted no time in moving away from Iker. "T-that's not true! I didn't know! I'm locked in here with you, why would I agree to that?" he trembled, trying to defend himself.

"I don't fucking know, bloody hell, they're your motherfucking friends!" Iker snapped.

"I-Iker.. if.. if they were my friends, then they, they wouldn't, they would've gotten me out of here before blocking the door okay? If they were my friends they wouldn't lock me up and they especially wouldn't do it with someone who has a temper, right?" Asier stammered as he pushed his back against the wall.

Iker just glared at Asier for a while, it felt like forever to Asier, before he turned to the door and kicked it while letting out some more curse words. He sat down and held his hands in his hair. Asier watched him, he hadn't moved yet and he didn't dare to, he just waited for Iker to do or say something. Iker angrily mumbled to himself for a couple of minutes, and ended with a sigh. Asier let out the breathe he didn't realize he was holding and sat down as well.

"So.. do we just wait until someone comes along..?" Asier asked carefully.

Iker stayed quiet and just stared. His eyes moved around a bit before settling on something, which made a small smile appear on his face. "I have an idea" he said as he stood up. He pressed his back against one of the walls, bent his knees a little and then clasped his hands together, then looked up at Asier. "I'll boost you up to that window, you seem small enough to fit through it and I am strong enough to lift you, it's the only way to get out of here if we don't want to waste our entire lunch break in here" he explained.

Asier nodded and put his foot on Iker's clasped hands. He yelped lightly as Iker pushed him up to the window. First he put his backpack through the window, and then he climbed through it himself. Iker watched, waiting for Asier to call out, but it didn't happen. Instead, he heard a thud, and then footsteps moving away quickly. He yelled Asier's name but got no response. Iker bit his lip and waited, then yelled again, but still nothing happened. He rubbed his face with his hands and gritted his teeth together. Of course this had to happen, of course Asier immediately ran away and left him there, he knew it would happen but there was no other choice, no other option to get out. For a second there he thought Asier might be a somewhat decent person who just got wrapped up in all of this mess without wanting to, but now it was fully clear to Iker that he had been lying, that he probably just said all that shit to save his own skin.

Iker sat down again, he was defeated, he was tired and no amount of yelling or cursing would make him feel better. Arbeloa doomed him, he wouldn't stop until he had taken everything away from Iker and this was the proof, he would do everything and anything to make Iker's life as miserable as possible and it was working so fucking well. There was nothing Iker could do about it, fighting back only delayed the inevitable, there was no way he could win this battle all by himself.

The door opened. Iker didn't even notice it until someone called out his name. He looked up, and his mouth fell open with surprise.

"Sorry if I took too long, I bumped into Isco and he tried to stop me from running" Asier said as he panted a little.


	42. Standing still

Iker still couldn't believe what happened as he sat with his two friends again. Asier had joined them too, he was still explaining what had happened. At first Isco was glaring at Iker, but once Asier got to the part where Iker lifted him up to the window so he could get out, Isco stopped and looked down, kind of ashamed of his actions. James was smiling though, he was really happy with everything that had happened that day. He hoped that this meant the two of them would start getting along, as that would be the end of this, thing, that has been driving the three of them apart.

It's not that James wouldn't have any friends left if Isco and Iker never could get along anymore, he had Cristiano, and he was sure that Cris would welcome him into his own group of friends. Cris was already kind of trying to do that, but James felt shy and nervous around them, they were different from Iker and Isco. With Iker and Isco he knew that they were just as lonely as him, and he felt like that was why their group worked out so well, but Cris' friends didn't seem lonely at all. They seemed like the kind of people that would hang out with friends every weekend and do tons of social things. Maybe James also wasn't sure if he wanted to be dragged into all those social things just yet, and he also didn't want to be the odd one in their group, that never went to those things with them, which was why repairing Iker's and Isco's friendship was so very important to him.

By now Asier was finished telling his story, and he finally turned to Iker. "Hey, Iker, is it uhm.. I'd really like to talk about what happened.. not today but, y-you know, is that okay?" He asked carefully.

Iker stared at him, took a while to answer, but then finally said, "Yeah, sure".

Asier smiled wide at the answer. "That's great! Uh, is it okay if we do it after school? Like today?" he suggested.

Iker simply nodded, he hoped it didn't come off as very rude, because in all honestly he was so surprised by his own stupidity that he could barely focus on anything anymore.

~

James was pulled aside after one of his classes later that day. He was confused, didn't know what was happening, and so he covered his face with his arms. When nothing happened he peeked through his arms to find out it was Cristiano. He blushed at his actions and hoped that Cris wouldn't think anything weird about it, he didn't really wanted to talk about the bullying with anyone. Isco didn't even know it was going on, and the only reason Iker knew and would keep an eye on him whenever he could, is because he saw it happen.

"Hey sunshine, I just wanted to ask you if you want to come with me after school, you can bring homework along if you want to" Cris said smiling.

James didn't have to think long about that, he smiled back and nodded quickly. He loved spending time with Cris, even doing homework was fun with his boyfriend. Plus he felt like he always did a better job and understood everything better whenever Cristiano helped him out.

"Awesome, I already can't wait" Cris answered and gave James a peck on the forehead.

~

After school Asier, Isco and Iker met up. James had already told them that he'd be spending time with Cris again, he knew he didn't have to be there with them, he didn't really have anything to do with the whole situation after all. This was something between Asier and Iker, and so they should be the ones to solve it, or talk it through, in this case. James already did his job, pushing them towards each other a little so this could happen. His two friends told him to have fun, and that they'd let him know how things went afterwards.

Isco wanted to be there, sit with them, to make sure there would be no fighting and that Iker would treat Asier fairly, but Asier asked him to keep his distance. Asier explained that Isco being there wouldn't be a good idea, he didn't know what things were like for them, and by now he trusted Iker enough to fully listen and not get mad. Isco didn't want to leave though, it took a while to convince him this was better, and eventually they agreed on him sitting at a distance, so he could still keep an eye on them and make sure everything would be fine. Chicharito, or Chikorita, as Isco still liked to call him, accompanied him, to keep him from getting bored or to just make sure he wouldn't run to them at the first sign of trouble. Chicharito was a big fan of one of the Real Madrid players, so Asier was sure he and Isco would get along just fine.

"Alright, uhm, so I figured that the best thing to do is to tell both of our sides of the story, because I realized what my brother told me probably isn't what really happened, or isn't the full story, and uh, I think it's best if you start, if you're okay with that?" Asier explained to Iker.

Iker took a deep breath and nodded. He didn't like to talk about what happened, but he knew he had to, for the sake of his friendship with Isco, and because he wanted to give Asier a fair chance to change his opinion. "I'll have to figure out where to start" he spoke.

"Well, I know you were good friends and all, you used to come over all the time, and you told me some things here and there, so I guess just start when, when the trouble started?" Asier suggested.

"Oh I know exactly when it all started, when Arbeloa came, he couldn't handle that I didn't want to give him what he wanted, and so he manipulated everyone and everything so he could have it, starting with those close to me, starting with your stupid brother" Iker said through gritted teeth. He had his head low and was staring at the ground. His parents were already crazy back then, but at least he had a best friend he could visit anytime to get away from them, which was what made the whole situation bearable to him back then.

"What? Really? Back then already? I know you started coming over less when he came, but I just thought it was because you were busy" Asier replied.

"Oh no, it was because Arbeloa was convincing him to turn against me, I thought I had nothing to worry about, I thought he'd be smarter than that, but then he started to join Arbeloa in annoying me, and once they found out I had a temper all hell broke loose, and eventually they got what they wanted" Iker explained.

Asier bit his lip, somewhere, it made sense, somewhere Asier could imagine his brother being like that, trying to get what he wanted even if it means hurting people you care about. He just would've never thought Xabi would do that to Iker. He always did find it weird and suspicious that Xabi never seemed very hurt or sad because of what happened between him and Iker, but he never thought that he actually was the one behind all that. For years he believed that it was Iker, that Iker somehow got jealous, or angry, or just, messed up, that Iker did all of that to himself, because that's what Xabi told him, and well, why wouldn't he believe his own brother?

"So, what's your side?" Iker asked as he looked up to Asier.

"Oh, uhm, well, my brother just said that, you changed, you got jealous and what not, that it was just, all your own fault" Asier answered quietly.

Iker chuckled lightly. "Of course, blaming me so that everyone is on his side, so that they won't believe me when I try to say what really happened" Iker responded, shaking his head a little.

"W-well, I believe you" Asier quickly said.

"Really? You do?".

"Yeah, I know Xabi, and everything you said just sounds, plausible, it sounds like.. something he'd do. It, it's somewhat similar to what he.." Asier spoke before he trailed off.

"To what?" Iker asked.

"Nothing. I just hope you know now that I didn't know what they did, and that if I knew I'd be on your side. I know we never really were friends but I was always happy when you came over, you were always really nice to me, and I miss those times.." Asier mumbled, as he stared at his legs.

"I.. I'm sorry, for everything, for yelling at you and for judging you without giving you a chance to prove me wrong" Iker replied, and put his hand on Asier' shoulder.

Isco had been watching them the entire time, had seen every move they made. He did talk to Chicharito, but he was, by far, not as invested in the conversation as he could have been, if he wasn't so focussed on the two people sitting a couple of meters away from him. He was surprised, and pleased, by what he saw. There was no indication of anger from Iker, and when he saw Iker comforting his boyfriend he knew that everything would end up to be okay.

~

James was staring at Cris' face, with a very content smile on his own. His arms were wrapped around Cristiano's body, as they were lying in Cris' bed. Cris rested his head on James' chest, James didn't know how or why it happened, but Cris' head often found ways to rest against his chest like that. Not that he was complaining, he really liked it, he just didn't understand it.

Cris was running his fingers over James' shoulder when he looked up at him. "Hey sunshine, when did you start liking me?" he asked.

"U-uhm, when I, when I first noti- saw, saw you, during uhm, l..lunchbreak" James answered. He remembered that day like it was yesterday, the way Cris looked, the way he felt, and how he was totally oblivious to what any of it meant.

"Aw, really? So it was love at first sight huh" Cris chuckled lightly. "Funny, it was the same for me".

"W-what?" James stuttered. He definitely didn't expect that, he was sure that Cristiano didn't start liking him until after they did that Science project together. He just couldn't believe that he was able to make such a good first impression on anyone. Sure Iker's and Isco's first impression of him were good too, but that didn't count.

Cris chuckled again. "I swear. It was when you introduced yourself to the class. You looked just like a lost puppy and I just couldn't resist that. I already made this whole plan on how we could become friends, but then your friend did most of the work for me, that was really nice, it made everything so much easier. And then when you just came up to me and asked for my phone number, that really surprised me, I didn't think you had it in you, I was actually going to try and get your email address by making up some bullshit reason, like for homework or something" he paused for a bit to give James' chin a small kiss, "I'm really glad it all went this way though, to have you here with me right now, you make me so happy, my sunshine".

James smiled wide at Cristiano's words. He wanted to say he felt the same way, but he suddenly lost the ability to form sentences, and so he did the one thing of which he knew would let Cris know how he felt. He leaned forward and kissed his boyfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, with this chapter being called standing still, I figured the best way to describe that was to have them talk about the past, you know, stand still and look back at what happened


	43. Dying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so, so sorry it took me so long again, I didn't want it to take this long, but there were holidays and then lost of stress and just not feeling good and also just not sitting down and trying to write.

They all sat together during lunch again after that. Well, it wasn't just the three of them anymore, Asier often joined them, and sometimes Asier's group of friends would be sitting nearby, though they were all too scared of Iker to come and say hello. Sometimes it would just be Iker and James, then Isco would've let them know that he would be sitting with Asier and his friends, so that Iker wouldn't end up being alone again.

James was glad things were back to normal, the three of them had fun again, there was no anger towards anyone, and it actually was quite nice to talk with Asier, that is, whenever his shyness levels were low enough that he could have a normal talk with anyone that wasn't one of his friends or Isco. He was glad he didn't have to worry about Iker or Isco or about ending up friendless, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle losing his two best friends, and he was glad he didn't have to find out.

Today was different though, today someone else came to their table, someone that wasn't friends with Asier or with Cris, or so James thought, because he didn't really remember seeing this person hanging out with them before. The person sat down, not saying a word, and just stared at Iker. James bit his lip, this whole situation made him really uncomfortable, and by the looks on Isco's and Asier's faces, they felt the same way. Iker looked up and just let out a small sigh.

"Hello Sergio, What's up?" Iker asked calmly.

Sergio looked at Iker's friends, and then turned his attention back to Iker. "I-..". he sighed and rubbed his face. "I need your help with learning for a test" he mumbled to his sort of friend. Sergio didn't like saying anything that would indicate he wasn't very smart, even though most people already knew he just wasn't very good at learning, he still didn't want to admit it. People liked him, and he intended to keep it that way.

"Sure, should I come over today?" Iker suggested.

"Yeah, today is fine" Sergio answered, and with that he stood up and left again.

James was baffled, he wasn't sure what just happened, but it was weird. He looked at Iker, who just smiled back and continued the conversation they had before getting interrupted, as if nothing had happened. James wanted to ask what was going on, but eventually just tried to forget the absurd encounter.

~

Cris was waiting for James at his locker after school. James knew exactly what that meant, Cris usually went to James' locker whenever he wanted to spend time with James, and that's exactly what Cristiano wanted to do this time as well.

"Hey sunshine, how are you doing?" Cris asked smiling.

James giggled lightly. "Good, you?".

Cris' smile grew at James' giggle. "I'm great, I was wondering if you'd like to join me, I gotta be in town today and I'd love it if you'd come with me" he responded.

James nodded happily. He didn't really care what they were going to do, anything was better than being at home and being forced to listen to his mother.

"Awesome, lets go then" Cris said as he grabbed James' hand.

~

Just as his two best friends, Isco also had company that day. He invited Asier over to his house to play games. At first Asier wasn't sure because he didn't play a lot of games and he didn't want to ruin Isco's fun because he was so bad, but Isco assured him that they'd play fun, easy games, and it was hard for Asier to say no to Isco. So Asier ended up on Isco's gaming couch, staring at the big screen Isco played his games on, fiddling with his fingers as he waited for Isco to finish whatever he was doing.

"Alright, we're all set, sorry that took a little while, I usually just play on my PlayStation and I don't often switch console and so I put the stuff I needed in boxes so I had to find that and then figure out where to plug everything into again, I don't want to ruin the surprise because I don't know if you ever played this but I'm sure you'll like it a lot and I'm sure this is fairly easy and I'm sure this will be a lot of fun to do, so... here" Isco said in almost one breath, before handing Asier a big, awkward controller.

Asier looked at it, and then looked back up at Isco. "Why are there three handles, I only have two hands" he stated.

"Because with the extra buttons game developers could choose what set of controls they want to use, making their game easier to play, because sometimes controls for video games are just really awkward and it would've been way better if the controller was different, or well, that's what I think" Isco explained.

"Oh, yeah that makes sense, that's pretty smart" Asier replied, and smiled at Isco.

Isco's cheeks turned slightly red as he smiled back. He wasn't sure if Asier just called him smart, or if he was talking about the people who developed the console, but the words made him blush either way.

Asier's face lit up when he saw what game they were going to play. He never actually played this particular game, but hell, any Pokémon game was fine with him.

"We're gonna do the mini games, because the mini games are awesome and I love them and you can play against each other, they're very easy and simple to understand as long as you read the instructions so you should be good, and if I'm beating you too hard I'll give you some tips here and there" Isco told Asier, who couldn't get the big smile off his face.

They started playing, and it didn't take long for Asier to understand what to do in every mini game. Isco was still too good for him, but at least he could easily beat the computer players, which were set on easy. Some games were more fun to play, so they did those more often.

Asier giggled as he tried to distract Isco by shoving his smelly feet in Isco's face, Isco was winning and he wasn't going to let that happen again.

Isco chuckled and tried to push the feet out of his face. "Hey, no cheating!".

Asier just giggled more and then proceeded to try and push the controller out of Isco's hands.

"Asier you wet sock!" Isco laughed as he tried to move away from Asier, so that he couldn't get distracted anymore.

The game ended and Asier held his hands up, as his Pokémon was the last one standing. "I won! I beat you! I'm better than you!" he beamed while he looked at Isco.

Isco pouted in response. "Just because you were cheating, you were distracting me, it's not fair" he said.

"Well you always win, so I think it's fair if I win once too" Asier replied giggling.

Isco huffed. "Fine then, this one again, or the sushi game?" he suggested.

"Sushi!"Asier smiled wide.

Asier tried to distract Isco again, but this time he had his feet on the ground, he was mainly just pushing against Isco's shoulder with his own, or trying to push Isco's controller away. He couldn't be as annoying as he was before, because he had to pay attention to what he was doing, or else he'd end up losing. The distracting didn't really seem to work, so Asier changed his tactics and started annoying Isco in the game. He'd constantly run into Isco's character, making him eat the wrong stuff, and stole the food from right under his nose.

"Asier! No! If I got that I would've gotten such a good combo!" Isco exclaimed, as he turned his head to Asier, who was laughing in response. He tried to get a certain item, but Asier pushed him out of the way again. "Asier!" Isco yelled as his character whined and ran around helpless "You made me eat the bad soup!".

By now Asier was laughing hard, tears were beginning to form in his eyes, and he had put the controller down to hold his tummy. He gasped for air as he just couldn't stop laughing. "I-I'm dy-ying!" he managed to say inbetween his laughter.

Isco couldn't help but laugh too, he had to admit that, even though Asier was being very annoying, it was also very funny. He wondered if maybe he had been a little too competitive, and should've gone easy on his boyfriend so that he would have more fun as well, but in the end it worked out alright.

Isco was getting a little worried when Asier kept gasping, and so he wrapped his arms around him and shook him a bit, hoping it would help. Asier kept laughing though, and then Isco did something very unexpected, something he didn't even plan to do for a while.

He kissed Asier on the cheek.

This was a big deal because Asier and Isco hadn't kissed before. They called themselves boyfriends, said they were dating, but they hadn't kissed yet. In fact they barely showed affection, they rarely held hands or cuddled or anything like that. Mostly because Asier didn't like to show affection in public, and when they finally were alone they forgot that it was just them.

It worked though, Asier finally escaped from his laughing fit, and before he knew it Isco's lips were onto his. It was very messy and awkward because neither of them knew exactly how to kiss. Isco's only experience was watching other people do it, and even though Xabi had tried to get Asier to kiss with several girls, Asier ran away every time he was forced into those situations. Isco eventually ran out of breath and moved back, both of their faces as red as tomatoes. Asier wiped some saliva off his cheek as they just stared at each other.

Isco loosened his grip on Asier, and Asier was finally able to move his hands away from his stomach. Neither of them said anything, they were both trying to figure out what exactly just happened.

After a couple of seconds, Isco moved away and looked down. He muttered a "I'm sorry" and bit his lip.

Asier copied his movement, and then looked at Isco. He moved forward and quickly pecked Isco on the corner of his lips.

Isco looked up to be met by a smile from Asier. He held his open hand up at Asier, who placed his hand onto it. Their fingers entwined together and they both smiled at each other.

~

Iker sighed softly as he was staring at the ceiling of Sergio's room. Sergio was trying out some questions for himself, to see if he understood the subject or needed some more explanations from Iker. Sergio was doing quite well so far, Iker barely had to repeat what he had explained, he seemed to have decent knowledge of the subject he had a test for, and so far he had already done a few problems without mistakes. Iker would tell Sergio he was doing a good job, but his confidence had already come back and he had been bragging a couple of times already, so Iker felt it wasn't needed.

He grabbed his phone to check if he had any notifications, but he had none. He didn't really know what to do now that Sergio was busy, it felt wrong to just look through Sergio's stuff without permission, and he didn't really bring anything along in case this would happen. He decided to just text his friends and see if they would respond. He soon got a message back from James.

-What are you up to?-

-I'm dying-

Iker frowned at his phone in confusion. Dying? What did James mean? Was he actually dying? But then why would he be on his phone?

-What? What do you mean?-

-Sorry, Dyeing*, stupid phone-

-Oh, yeah that makes more sense, what are you dyeing?-

-I'm with Cris at his hairdresser, they both convinced me to dye my hair-

-What colour?-

-Nothing special, I'm just gonna get blonde tips, I'm not gonna do anything crazy while dyeing my hair for the first time-

-Sounds cool, send me a pic once it's finished-

-I'll do that, it's my turn now, later Iker!-

James put his phone on a small table and then sat down in the chair. He could see Cristiano smiling at him in the mirror, with his new fancy haircut. He didn't do anything different with it, it was just shorter again.

"It's gonna look amazing sunshine" Cris said as he placed his hand on James' shoulder.

James responded with a nervous smile. He was excited though, he really liked to know what it would look like, how much different it would be, but he was also worried about how his mother would react. He hadn't really asked her for permission, she had no idea he was going to do this. He also had no idea if she'd even approve or not. He figured he'd just try to hide it from her as much as possible.


	44. Two roads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this chapter got a lot longer than I expected

The hairdresser was almost done with James' hair, she had finished dyeing and cutting it, and had started styling it. James bit his lip as he stared at what she was doing through the mirror. He was feeling a little.. nervous wasn't quite the right word, but it was some sort of an uncomfortable feeling. He knew why he felt that way, Cristiano stated that he'd pay for everything, but James didn't want that. Even though he didn't really have the money to pay for it himself, he still didn't want Cris to pay for everything, but Cristiano kept insisting and in the end James just gave up. It still made him feel somewhat bad though, it made him want to do something special for Cris in return, but he wasn't sure how.

James got pulled out of his thoughts when someone entered the little shop. He didn't know the person, didn't remember seeing them anywhere, but apparently Cris did because he looked up with a smile.

"Cristiano! Fancy seeing you here, I haven't seen you for a while" the guy said with a big smile on his face.

"Hey Gareth, you're right, it has been a while, how have you been?" Cris answered as he gave the guy a hug.

James felt sick watching them, his stomach twisted and he felt nauseous. He didn't know why, but he immediately didn't like this person called 'Gareth'. He watched them talk, they seemed to be fairly good friends because they smiled and laughed a lot at each other, and Gareth always seemed to be touching Cris in some way. Cris let him, didn't stop him at all, James didn't understand why, because whatever Gareth was doing was something he wasn't suppose to.

James was very glad when the hairdresser was finished. He jumped out of the chair, mumbled a "T-thank you" and then hurried to Cris to grab his arm and drag him out of the store. Cristiano quickly gave the money to the lady behind the counter before James dragged him to the door, but when they were about to go outside, Gareth stopped them.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, probably to my place" Cris answered, and then turned to James. "Is that okay sunshine?".

James quickly nodded, and then proceeded to open the door, but once again Gareth stopped them.

"Sunshine? What kind of nickname is that?".

"I forgot, you don't know yet, this is my boyfriend" Cris explained with a big smile on his face.

James looked at Gareth and gave him a little wave. Gareth stared back, eyed him from top to bottom, and then gave James some sort of weird look. James felt extremely uncomfortable, it was very clear that this Gareth person didn't like him at all, and also didn't approve of him being Cristiano's boyfriend.

"Oh, okay, nice to meet you. I actually wanted to spend some time with you again Cris, I want to come along" Gareth then said.

"I don't know if that's a good idea" Cris replied as he scratched the back of his head, "But we could hang out some other time".

"Yeah, sounds good, I'll text you" Gareth replied.

Cris nodded, and before he could say anything else, James was pulling him outside. He just had enough time to wave at Gareth before they were out of sight.

~

Iker came back late that day. He ended up having dinner at Sergio's, because Sergio just needed help with so many things. At one point he said he'd come over some other time to finish the rest of it, but Sergio didn't want that, Sergio wanted to finish it all in one day so he wouldn't have to worry about it any longer. Maybe also because he still didn't like Iker a lot and wanted to see his face as little as possible too, but either way, it was a long and tiring day, and Iker was happy to be home.

Martín was already waiting for him when he got home. He wasn't happy, he didn't get his food on time, so he was grumpy, and he made sure Iker knew he was. Even after Iker fed him he kept on being annoying, sitting on the keyboard when Iker wanted to get online and chat with his crush, waving his tail in front of Iker's face every chance he got, and more. Iker just sighed, he knew he shouldn't have stayed away for so long, so he just accepted his faith and let Martín annoy him as much as he wanted.

His crush giggled at the sight when the video chat had loaded. "Hey there, you're late, and someone seems to not be so happy with that" he said smiling.

"Yeah, I know, I had to help someone with homework and such, I deserve it" Iker answered as he pet Martín's head.

"He's probably like that because he missed you" his crush replied.

"You really think so?" Iker asked, as he looked down at his cat. He knew dogs were always very excited when their owners came home, but he never knew how cats reacted. Martín never did anything special when he came home, he was just there, meowing at him, asking for attention as always. It was more as if he was greeted by another human than by a pet.

"Yeah, I do. Just because cats aren't as affectionate as dogs doesn't mean they don't care about you at all, they just show it in different ways. Cats are often very misunderstood." his crush answered.

Iker chuckled. "Are you going to lecture me about that now?".

"No, I'll spare you, I know you understand".

Iker smiled at the screen. Talking to his crush always helped him relax, always made him feel so much better. It was like all the problems in the world were solved, gone, like he was living in a perfect world.

"I want to visit you".

The words were out of Iker's mouth before he even realized what he was saying, and by the time he said them it was too late to take them back. He bit his lip, hoping that it wouldn't freak out his crush. The last thing he needed right now was moving way too fast and pushing his crush away before he even had a chance to confess his feelings.

It was quiet for a bit, his crush seemed to contemplate the words, but Iker didn't have to wait long for an answer. "That sounds great, when?".

Iker's face completely lit up, that definitely was the best response he could've gotten and he was so very happy with it. "Uhm, this weekend? I have nothing planned" Iker suggested.

"I'll ask my dad if that's okay, but I'm pretty sure he'll say yes" his crush answered smiling.

~

"Is that okay with you Iker? Hey, Iker? Are you even listening to what I'm saying? What are you even daydreaming about? Ikeyyyyy" Isco whined the next day during lunch. After he still didn't get a response from Iker he decided to just grab his cheek and squeeze hard. "Iker I demand to have your attention it's important!" he then grunted.

Iker swatted Isco's hand away and glared at him for a bit, but then realized it was kind of his own fault and he deserved it. "Sorry, what were you saying?" he asked.

"I want to get us to a match again, soon, not sure when yet, but I was wondering if you're okay with Asier coming along. I know you'll probably say yes but I just want to ask to be sure you know, it'd be kind of really awkward if you wouldn't want him there and I guessed that you would and then you'd have to sit with him and all and yeah.. But like I said I'm sure you're okay with it I just want confirmation so I'm really sure" Isco rambled to Iker.

"Oh, yeah sure, it's fine if he comes along" Iker answered. He was about to go back to daydreaming when Isco nudged him again. "What?".

"You want to come along to a match right? Again I'm not sure what match, maybe the one this weekend but I kind of doubt my dad will be able to get us all tickets for that, but else the one next week, or after that, if we all don't have anything to do, and it also depends on when we play at home and who we play against, I'm fine with watching matches against the lower teams but it wouldn't be very interesting for you, well maybe not for you but for James and Asier it could be so it'd be better to go to a match against a team that's like, in the top ten or something, you understand?" Isco explained.

Iker rubbed his face, sometimes it was hard to keep up with what Isco was saying, he'd talk so much that you didn't always knew what point he was trying to make. "Yeah, sure" he replied, hoping he wasn't agreeing to something he didn't want.

"Good! Then I'll let you know as soon as possible when, and then at what time we should all meet up and where, I'm already excited!" Isco grinned widely.

Once Isco was done talking about football, or better said, talking about going to a match together, James excused himself. He said, or rather stuttered, that he wanted to talk to Cris, and then left, knowing that the answer would be satisfying enough to his friends. He didn't want to tell them the reason he wanted to talk to Cris, it hopefully was just a minor misunderstanding and would be solved within minutes, and so he didn't want to bother his friends with it.

The problem was that Cristiano wasn't texting back. This was a big deal because that rarely happened, and if it did it was because Cris had a good reason, but he never not answered while they were at school and had lunch break. So James was determined to find his boyfriend to see what was going on. He honestly was worried something had happened, maybe Cristiano got sick, maybe some of James' clumsiness transferred to Cris and he had hurt himself, James didn't know, but he had to find out.

He found Cris' friends in no time, but he wasn't there. James bit his lip and looked around, this was weird, Cristiano would never do this, he was always either with his friends or with James. He was really worried at this point, he contemplated asking Cris' friends where he was, but he didn't really dare. His friends were great, James knew that, but he still didn't really know anything about them, and without Cristiano there with him he felt a whole lot more nervous to talk.

One of Cristiano's friends stared at James for a few minutes, before standing up and waving at him. "Hey, James! Come over here!" he yelled.

James bit his lip again and slowly made his way to the table. The guy smiled at him, James tried to remember his name, he knew that he knew it, but for some reason he couldn't think of it.

"Isn't Cris with you?" he asked.

James opened his mouth to speak, but when he couldn't he just shook his head.

"Really? That's weird, he didn't come sit with us either" Marcelo, James finally remembered the name, responded.

James shrugged lightly, he didn't really know what else to do, and then he looked around again. He wanted to go look for Cris, but wasn't sure how to make it clear. He ended up just pointing into the crowd and then slowly walked away. He didn't hear his name being called again so he figured they understood what he meant, or didn't notice he was gone.

He continued his search for Cristiano, and luckily it didn't take him long to find him. He froze when he saw who he was with though, it was the guy they saw at Cris' hairdresser. They were talking, smiling, laughing, it was the exact same as the first time he saw them together, even the touching was there, but this time Cris was doing it back just as much.

James may not be smart, he may be clueless a lot, but he knew exactly what was going on right in front of him. The guy was heavily flirting with Cris, his boyfriend, and Cristiano did nothing to stop it, he seemed to be enjoying it even. James felt his stomach twist again as he just stood there and watched them. He didn't know what to do, go up to them and say something about it? But with all his stuttering the guy would probably just laugh it off and James wouldn't be surprised if Cris laughed with him at this point. He couldn't text Cris either because he was too busy flirting to notice James had send him about 20 messages already. Should he just walk away? Let the flirting continue and possibly risking losing his boyfriend?

James felt like those were the only two options he had, either do something about it or just let it happen and pray for the best, but he felt like both options wouldn't work out. There was no way James would be able to stand up for himself, he was never able to do that, and this wouldn't be any different. He would need Iker to do all the talking and maybe yell at the guy to scare him away, but he wasn't sure if that was such a good idea, showing Cris how weak he was, not even being able to stand up alone for his boyfriend.

The other option, hoping for the best, seemed like it would be doomed to fail as well. Cris seemed to get along with the guy so well, there was no way it would result in a happy end for James. He already felt like the guy was a million times better than him, without even knowing him. The guy didn't have a stutter, was confident enough to talk with the person he liked and even flirt with them, even getting a positive response from the flirting. There was just no way James could even come close to all that, he was just awkward scared little James, he was an outcast. He never even understood why Cris liked him, because Cristiano was a 1000 out of 10, and on that same scale James was a -1000.

James eventually walked away. He wasn't giving up completely just yet, but he really didn't know what to do. He decided to give himself some time to think about it, and if that didn't work he probably could ask Isco and Iker for help. That is, if it wasn't too late yet by then.  
~

Iker had a big problem. Isco had just texted him, saying that his dad was able to get tickets for this weekend's match, and he added the details about when and where they'd meet up. Iker hadn't responded yet, he didn't know what to say. He didn't want to disappoint Isco, as he felt like he had already said yes.

He should've just told Isco that he had plans this weekend, it wasn't even that hard to say it, just one simple line, he didn't even have to say what he was doing, just that he was doing something. Iker was stupid enough to think that there was no way they would go this weekend, he expected them to go the next weekend, maybe the one after that, but he could've never guessed Isco's father made the impossible possible.

He didn't know what to do, go to the match or go to his crush, he knew what he wanted to do, but he felt like, if he picked that option, the disappointment of the other would be way bigger than if it was the other way around. He didn't know if he had to be selfish or selfless, go to his crush or go with his friends, disappoint his friends or disappoint his crush.

Iker sighed as he picked up his phone. He had to choose, he couldn't go to both, he couldn't just stay home either. He stared at his contacts for a while, and then finally made a decision. He just had to hope no one would be mad at him for the choice he made.

That weekend he grabbed his bag and looked at his phone. He texted James back as he got in his car, then put it next to him and drove off. He stopped in front of a house, grabbed his phone again to see if he had any messages, and then got out. Iker walked up to the door, knocked on it, and then waited for a response. He looked at his phone while waiting, then noticed he had a message from his crush as well, but before he could respond the door in front of him opened. Iker looked up and found himself staring at the person he loved.

"Hola Iker" his crush said with a smile.

"Hey Der, it's nice to finally see you again" Iker responded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so, I realize this is a pretty bold move I made, and this is also the reason why it took so long to reveal Iker's crush and why he wasn't mentioned that often  
> For anyone that didn't understand who Iker's crush is, it's, well, me  
> I know people generally don't like it when you bring Original Characters into a fic (I'm one of them) but my friend kind of encouraged me to do so and I found that it could lead to more interesting situations if it were me(with me just not being your average person), and I actually don't know all that much about David Beckham, and even after doing 'research' I just couldn't figure out what kind of guy I should've made him  
> Now, if it turns out people really don't like it, then I'll just continue to mention Iker's crush as little as possible, this is also why I made his crush live so far away because I feel like it's easier to skip over moments, but if people's responses are rather positive you might just get to see more of me  
> I think I'll do it like this, if I get messages saying that they don't like it, it will be kept to a minimum, if people say they do like it, I will put more of it in it, and if I don't really get any messages about it I'll try to find a middle way, I'll probably pick some important moments that could be interesting, and not really go into much details  
> I'm sorry for saying so much about it, I'm just quite nervous about doing this


	45. Illusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was such a pain in the ass to write, for some reason I felt like I struggled a whole lot with it, and when I first finished it I hated what I wrote, but when I read through it later I realized I didn't do so bad, it's very weird

Because Iker didn't come along to the match, Isco had an extra ticket left. He said it'd be a shame to not give it to anyone else, and asked Asier if maybe his friend wanted to come along, but before he could finish asking James spoke up, asking if it was okay if Cris would join them. Isco immediately said yes, thought it was a great idea and went on about how it would be a great double date and all that, and so James sneaked away to go and find his boyfriend.

He tried texting, but again, he didn't get any response, and when he went to check up on Cris' friends he wasn't there, again. James wasn't surprised anymore at this point, this was the third day in a row it happened, he just hoped Cristiano would still have time that weekend. James sighed when he finally found his boyfriend, he was with Gareth again, no surprise there, and they were still having a good time. He just took a deep breath and walked up to the two, asked Cris what he wanted to ask and then bit his lip. He had cut off Gareth in the process, but he didn't even notice that because he was too busy worrying about other things in his head. Luckily Cristiano said yes, said he didn't have any plans, and that he'd love to come along. Gareth immediately had to ask if he could join in as well, and James had a lot of trouble trying to explain that it was only possible for one person to join him and his friends. Gareth certainly didn't look pleased, muttered something about trying to get tickets himself, and the rest James didn't hear because he was pretty much running back to his friends again.

They ended up having a great time. Real Madrid won (of course), Isco was constantly talking and explaining things to Asier, and James just enjoyed being with Cristiano again. It was almost as if everything was fine again, Cris didn't act any different, he was still as nice and sweet as he always was. It was a huge relief to James, he felt more calm again, more sure that things would turn out to be alright, that Cris and Gareth just had a whole lot of catching up to do, and once that was over things would go back to normal.

Oh how wrong James was.

~

James was hoping that Cristiano would be waiting for him at his locker Monday morning, but there was no one there. Still it didn't bother James that much because classes were about to start and Cris was probably already making his way to his classroom, in fact he had to hurry himself if he didn't want to be late. So James quickly grabbed everything he needed from his locker and went to class, not really thinking about why Cristiano didn't show up.

When his boyfriend was nowhere to be seen during lunchtime as well, he started getting suspicious. It wasn't like he didn't expect this to happen at all, it wasn't like he actually thought that things would just be normal again between him and Cris after that match, he was just really hoping it would, and in the end he got his hopes up for nothing because Cristiano was once again not answering any of his text messages.

There was still some hope inside James though, maybe not today, but maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe someday Cris would stop giving all his attention to this greasy haired boyfriend stealing asshole and finally pay attention to him again. Maybe someday the asshole would just fuck off and stay away from people who were already taken. He just hoped that day would come soon.

James sat down with his friends, maybe he'd ask them for help, they probably knew what to do. Iker was very smart and who knows maybe Isco would be able to come up with something good as well, he did do some amazing work finding Iker's crush after all, maybe he'd be able to find out more about this person that managed to grab Cris' full attention.

It was immediately clear that Iker was being distant, he was just staring at nothing, sighing, he barely moved at all. James was a little confused why, and Isco seemed to be puzzled as well. He figured that after finally seeing his crush again he'd be happy, really happy, but maybe Iker just really missed him, and that's why he was so down.

"Hey, Iker, is everything okay?" Isco carefully asked.

Iker sighed again and then looked at Isco. "I don't know.." he mumbled, and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Did.. did something happen while you were with him..?" Isco continued his questions.

"No.. everything was fine, I just" he sighed, "I should've just told him.. but I didn't, and now I hate myself because I didn't tell him".

"M-maybe t-uhm tell him, next time..?" James suggested.

"Yeah but, that could take forever, I'm not just gonna be able to see him again next week, and I don't even know if he wants to see me again anytime soon" Iker responded.

"I'm sure he does though" Isco said, to which Iker just sighed, and after that he went back to staring into space.

"Just let him be for now, maybe he'll feel better later today" Asier spoke when Isco was about to open his mouth again. Isco nodded and looked down, he wanted to help Iker, but he knew that right now there just wasn't a whole lot he could do.

James bit his lip. He wanted to talk to them about his problem, but now just really didn't feel like the right time. Iker was obviously upset, and Isco was upset because Iker was upset, because that's how things went in their friendship, if one of them was sad they were all sad. He didn't know if he should wait until Iker's problem was solved and he felt completely better again, or if he should speak up when Iker just seemed somewhat happy. He didn't know how long it would take for Iker's problem to go away, and he really didn't want to have to wait for weeks before he could finally get some help with his Cristiano problem.

~

James decided to take matters into his own hands. Well, not really actually, he was just going to see Cris because he had asked him to help him with homework again some days ago, and he wanted to be sure Cristiano didn't forget. Cris had already forgotten to sit with him during lunch, and James was scared that wasn't the only thing his boyfriend was forgetting.

He found Cris with Gareth, it actually was the first place he looked for to find his boyfriend this time, and he was disappointed that his first guess was the right one this time. They were still just as comfortable as James had previously seen them, and James still felt as sick as he did those other times. He didn't really know how he was going to do this, he didn't want to interrupt Cristiano or Gareth, but he also knew that if he just let them talk, he would never be able to ask Cris anything.

In the end he walked to Cristiano and started tugging on his shirt until they were looking at each other. Cris smiled and gave James a peck on his cheek, James was glad at least that hadn't changed yet. However, within seconds Cristiano turned back to Gareth and continued talking to him as if James wasn't even there. James sighed and tugged on his boyfriend's shirt again, he was gonna ask what he wanted to ask, no matter how long it took.

Cristiano finally stopped talking to Gareth and then looked at James. "What is it?" he asked.

"U-uhm" James started off great, "I-I w-was.. no uh.. y-you said..we w-w-were g-gonna uhm.. h-homew-work, tog-g-gether, when.." were the only words James managed to get out of his mouth.

"Homework? Oh! Oh right you were coming over to do homework with me today right?" Cris answered, to which James nodded. From the corner of his eye he could see Gareth glaring at him.

"Oh well, I'm sorry sunshine, but I promised Gareth I'd have a drink with him after school". Gareth seemed to be very pleased with Cris' answer, he had a smug smile on his face and had his arms crossed, and basically looked as if he had just won an argument.

James stared at his boyfriend, he couldn't believe it, did Cris really set him aside just so that he could have a drink? He could have a drink any time, but they wouldn't always be on a Science subject Cris was really good at. He opened his mouth, he wanted to say more, wanted to express how upset he was that Cris picked Gareth over him. He was fine with Cristiano hanging out with friends, but this was going too far, James had barely spent time with his boyfriend over the past few weeks, apart from the match.

Instead of speaking up, James slowly stepped back from Cristiano and then walked away. Cris didn't even notice, was too busy talking to his new boyfriend. James had to bite his lip to keep him from crying, this was the end, there was no chance in hell he would ever get his boyfriend back now. Cris barely even noticed him, he had to practically beg for attention multiple times and then when he finally did pay attention it was only for a few seconds, and to tell him he basically got replaced. He couldn't believe he actually thought Cris liked him a lot, he probably got tired of James after the few months they had been together, probably figured out that there was nothing special to James, that he was just a weird kid.

James joined his friends after that, just sat down and stared, copying Iker's behaviour. He just wanted the ground to swallow him up, he just wanted to go to bed and sleep for 5 years, he just didn't want to do anything at all anymore.

Isco and Asier looked at each other, they had no idea what was going on with James, but they were surely going to find out and help him. Having one friend stare into space was bad enough, but two was even worse. They had to fix his problem, no matter what, they knew that they couldn't really help Iker, which made them even more determined to help out James. First they had to find out what exactly his problem was though, and they knew that wasn't going to be easy, they just hoped it wouldn't be impossible as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also didn't really know how to use the word illusion, so I just thought about, making things seem different than they are, and went with that


	46. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: f-word near the end of the chapter

Asier was walking home, deep in thoughts. He and Isco talked about James, about what could be wrong, and about how they could maybe help him, but since they still didn't know what was going on, they couldn't really make a plan to help him either. All they could do was try and cheer him up, make him happy, just make him feel better, but all that would only be temporarily, if they really wanted to help him they had to solve his problem, so it wouldn't be bothering him anymore.

Since trying to figure it out together at school didn't work out, they decided to think about it at home, and not mention it again until the next day. They also agreed that they'd sit with Asier's friends the next day, maybe they'd be willing to help, and the more help they got the better. Asier was fairly sure his friends would be willing to help, James was nice, new, hadn't done anything to give them a bad opinion about him. In fact they liked him, because James had helped him to finally confess his feelings to Isco, something his friends had been trying to do for a long time.

Asier was listing things in his head, things that could make James feel sad, but it was hard since he didn't really know much about him. All he knew was that he and Cris were dating, and that he was friends with Isco and Iker, and the stutter of course, but that was something the entire school knew by now.

Asier sighed and decided to use a different approach, he thought about things he would get upset about, and then he could ask Isco the next day if maybe James could be upset because of those things. It seemed like a good idea, then he at least had something to ask Isco, and he could feel like he actually did something to help his new friend.

The first thing that popped up in Asier's mind was family trouble. Not like he had a lot of family trouble, his parents were very nice people. They were understanding and caring, and they had never gotten very mad at him, or at least, never to the point where he was really upset about it, but maybe things were different for James. Maybe James' parents weren't that nice, or maybe when they got mad they would just explode with anger, or maybe they'd give him mean unfair punishments, or punish him for stupid little things that weren't his fault at all. Asier made a mental note to ask Isco if it could be James' parents.

The next thing he thought about was Isco, not that he was thinking Isco made James upset, but Isco was his boyfriend, and if things wouldn't go well between the two of them he could imagine he'd feel sad and upset as well. He knew James had a boyfriend, he knew James' boyfriend hadn't been around for a few days, but he didn't know if this was normal or not. It seemed like a valid option, and so he added it to his little list.

Then there was friend trouble that could upset someone, though that seemed to be unlikely in James' case, unless James just soaked up Iker's sad feelings, unless he was so sad because Iker was sad. Asier wasn't sure if that was possible, he had never seen it before, not with his own friends, and not with his brother's friends, but he could imagine that maybe there were people who were so close with their friends that they just copied the sad mood, with the exact same intensity. He put that point at the bottom of his list, because even though it was a possibility, Asier felt like this wasn't the case.

The last thing he thought about was problems at school, bad grades maybe, oh Asier hated bad grades. He wasn't as smart as Iker, not by far, and it wasn't like he tried his hardest to get a great score, but he felt like he put a decent amount of work into his homework, enough to get a good grade, and he was sure that a couple of bad grades in a row could definitely make him feel down.

The other school related thing that could be bothering James was getting bullied. Asier knew what it was like, knew what the people at school were like, and they weren't exactly the nicest people. If it hadn't been for his brother and friends he would've still been bullied now, and he could imagine someone like James, someone who stutters and just didn't seem to have a very high self-esteem, to be a perfect target for all the stupid people that walked around that school. He really hoped it wasn't that, because that problem would be the hardest to solve.

Asier looked up to find out he had been so deep in thoughts that he didn't realize he was almost home already. It felt like he walked home in record time, but when he looked at his phone he found out he took just as long as usual. He walked inside, said hello to his mother and gave her a kiss, then grabbed a snack and headed to his room to do some homework. On the way up he bumped into his brother, who almost let him pass, but then changed his mind and grabbed his arm at the last second.

"Hey, wait up lil brother" Xabi said as he looked at him.

Asier turned around and smiled at his brother. "Yes?".

"Me and Álvaro are gonna play some football in a bit, you wanna come?" Xabi asked.

"Uh, I don't know, I got quite some homework to do" Asier lied.

"Come on, it'll be good for you, you need to build up some muscles little brother, so you can stand up for yourself" Xabi replied.

Asier bit his lip. "I think I'm doing just fine".

"Only because I'm constantly looking out for you, which I don't mind, anything for my little baby brother" he said grinning, "but when I graduate I won't be able to help you anymore, you'll have to be able to protect yourself".

"W-well maybe some other time, I have to do homework right now". Asier tried to run to his room, but Xabi grabbed his arm again before he had a chance.

"You can skip homework for once, you need to train, and meet some ladies, I'm pretty sure you still haven't even kissed a girl yet".

"I have kissed someone!" it was out of Asier's mouth before he realized.

Xabi's grip on Asier's arm tightened. "You talking about that weirdo you're always around lately? I knew he was a bad influence on you" he said through gritted teeth.

"He's not!" Asier yelled back, he didn't know where it came from, but for the first time he had the courage to stand up against his brother.

"He's turning you into a f*g, you need to stay away from him. Trust me, I know what's good for you, I'll get you new, better friends" Xabi replied.

Asier didn't know what to do, his brother still had a tight grip on him, so he couldn't escape, and he knew that the only way Xabi would let go is if he agreed to come with him, but he didn't want to. He knew Xabi and Álvaro would just try to convince him that Isco, James and Iker were bad people, bad influences, that they were crazy people who would just hurt him in the end, but Asier knew better.

He got saved by his mom, who spoke loudly from downstairs, asking Xabi if he was coming or not, because his friend was waiting for him. Xabi let him go and walked down, and Asier rushed to his room. He closed the door and let out a shaky sigh. He knew he should talk to his mom about what Xabi was doing, but he had tried doing it before, and Xabi would always use 'I'm only trying to help him' as an excuse. His parents also didn't know that he liked guys more than girls, and he was afraid to tell them, he had no idea how they would react, if they felt the same way about it as Xabi did, and so he decided to just keep quiet and deal with it. He had been doing alright dealing with it before, without telling anyone, so he felt like he should be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think it's easy to see in what's going on, but it's very important to know that Xabi isn't intentionally hurting Asier, he's just trying to do what he thinks is best


	47. Creation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it is Christmas here and I felt like uploading this as kind of a gift for everyone. This has been sitting on my laptop, finished, for a while, but I didn't want to upload it because I've barely been writing, and when I do it's either slow or something new that I work on one night and then give up on forever. I'm still not back to any kind of writing schedule, but if you want I can just upload whenever I finish something, that would mean that it could take a month or more for updates. If not I'll just try to get in some sort of upload schedule again before I continue updating this. Happy holidays!! And lets hope 2017 will not be as bad as this year was

Asier felt very nervous when he walked to school the next day. He was holding a piece of paper tightly in his hand, on which he had written all the reasons why James could be sad. He was nervous because he felt like his reasons weren't good enough. While thinking more about what it could be, he realized he barely knew James at all, and so that his predictions could be very far away from the truth. He realized that him thinking about it may not be any help at all, he realized that if his friends would try to help out, they would run into the same problem. Maybe they'd eventually figure it out but it would surely take a long time, and Asier didn't want it to take a long time, he wanted to be able to help James today.

When he arrived at school, the first thing he did was finding Isco. Luckily finding Isco never was a difficult task, he was already waiting for Asier at Asier's locker, smiling wide when he spotted his boyfriend. Asier couldn't help but to smile back, despite all the little things that had been bothering him that morning, Isco's smile was just too cute to resist.

Before Asier could say anything, Isco grabbed his hands and took him to his friends. They had been waiting nearby, as Isco had told them to. James was still sad, still in the same mood he had been yesterday, with that distant look on his face, as if he didn't care about everything and anything anymore. Iker's mood had improved a lot though, he was smiling again, looking more like his usual self, or maybe even happier than usual, which probably meant that he had talked with his crush and everything was fine again.

"Alright Isco, why did you bring us here together?" Iker asked.

Isco simply shrugged.

"You don't have a reason?" Asier questioned.

Isco bit his lip. "Well, I wanted to talk about a certain someone who probably needs our help but I don't know if now is the right time to talk about it, and I don't really know what exactly to do to help that certain someone because I don't really have a plan and I'm hoping you have a plan because I really don't know what to do to help this certain someone and what exactly their problem could be, so I just got all of us together hoping that things would kind of get solved by themselves.." he answered, staring at the ground once he was done with his rambling.

Iker raised his eyebrow, processing everything that Isco just said, and then looked at James. He looked back at Isco and Asier and gave them a questioning look. Asier wasn't sure what exactly Iker meant, but Isco apparently did, as he nodded quickly in response.

Iker rolled his eyes and sighed. "Let me handle this, during lunchtime, because I don't have enough time right now".

~

Lunchtime came, and Isco and Asier were still in the dark. They had no idea what Iker was planning to do, who would be involved, if it would go down smoothly or not, he didn't tell them anything. When their little group was together, plus Asier's friends because Asier had asked them to join them so they could help, Iker just grabbed James' hand and walked away. Isco and Asier looked at each other, and then followed their two friends, curious about what was about to happen, but also a little worried.

James barely reacted, he was so caught up in his sad emotions that he barely knew what was going on. It was difficult to pay attention in class too, he didn't even remember what they talked about. However, he came back to his senses when Iker stopped. A few feet away from them, Cristiano was talking to Gareth again. James realized that Iker was planning to do something, but he had no idea what it could be. He just hoped the plan wasn't to punch Gareth in the face, because as much as he hated the guy, he was sure that punching him wouldn't solve anything.

Iker walked towards the two unexpecting victims, and everyone held their breath. he crossed his arms and looked at Cris, waiting for him to notice he was standing there. He cleared his throat after a couple of seconds, after which Cristiano turned to him.

"When are you free?" Iker asked.

"Uh.. wha-" Cris tried to respond, but got cut off by Iker.

"Are you free this Thursday?" Iker continued.

"I'm not su-" Cristiano got cut off again.

"James needs help with a project, so he'll drop by on Thursday".

"But I-".

"He'll be there around 5, so make sure you're home by that time". With that, Iker walked back to his friends.

Cristiano wasn't sure what just happened, he looked at Gareth, who seemed just as confused as he was. All he knew is that somehow he let Iker talk him into helping out James, even though he was already planning to do something with Gareth.

Isco tried to hold back the smile on his face. He was filled with pride, he was amazed and proud and so happy to see Iker figure out such a smart solution within a matter of seconds. Well he knew that Iker would come up with something smart, but he didn't expect him to do it so quickly and so efficiently, and so when Iker came up to them he hugged him tight.

~

James nervously rubbed his hands together as he was waiting outside of Cristiano's house. He was scared, no, terrified that Cristiano had decided to hang out with Gareth instead, to just leave him standing there, outside his door, as a way of saying that he was most definitely over him and found someone better. He stared to the ground, he tried to convince himself that it wasn't going to end like that, but he just had little hope left lately.

James nearly jumped out of his skin when the door opened. He stared at his boyfriend, surprised to see him standing there, worried about him, and surprised at his reaction. He didn't know what to do, he wasn't anticipating this, and so he just stood there awkwardly until Cris invited him in.

Once James was inside he was lost again, he didn't know what to say, didn't even know what to do or where to go. He felt stupid for being so taken aback because his boyfriend did something he didn't expect and actually didn't cancel a date. Was he being stupid for not trusting his boyfriend after such a short time? Or was this a normal thing? Was Cris being unfair by giving Gareth his full attention or did James just had to deal with the fact that Cris had a new friend and wanted to spend more time with him? How was he suppose to feel? He really didn't know, all of this was a first to him and it confused the fuck out of him.

James felt a little better after seeing that Cris was feeling awkward too. Well, he felt better knowing that he wasn't the only one making a fool out of himself, he wasn't sure if Cris feeling awkward was actually a good thing…

His trail of thoughts got interrupted by Cristiano hugging him, actually hugging him, tight. It took James a few seconds to realize what was going on, and after that he ended up hugging him back. He buried his face in Cris' shoulder, he didn't want Cristiano to see or hear that he was tearing up, that he had missed this so much.

Cristiano let out a sigh as he hugged his boyfriend just a little tighter. He kissed James' ear, and then whispered an "I'm sorry". He realized he had failed James, he had been a bad boyfriend, he had fucked up. Obviously James wouldn't be this upset if everything was fine, and he knew it was because of him, because else James wouldn't be acting so distant earlier.

They stayed like that for a while, until James calmed down and the tears had stopped coming. Cris held James close, by keeping his hands on his waist. James looked up at his boyfriend and gave him a soft smile, and Cris gave him a kiss in return. He knew kissing wouldn't make things better, but he felt like it was a nice start to a long apology.

"So, what do you need help with?" Cris said, not really knowing what else to say.

James bit his lip and looked down. "U-uhm.. I-I, I f-for-forg-got.. t-to.." he trailed off.

Cris put his hand on James' cheek and smiled. "Hey, it's alright, is it an important project? Or is it alright if we do something else?" he suggested.

James looked at Cris. To be honest he never needed help with a project to begin with, it was just an excuse Iker came up with to get them together again, and he was so nervous about doing something with Cristiano again that he completely forgot about the so called project. He quietly mumbled something, but somehow Cris still managed to understand what he said.

"I think we should have some cake mix lying around, I know my sister has been wanting to make a cake, I'm sure she won't mind if we do it for her, does that sound good?" Cris asked.

James had no idea how to make a cake, he surely never made one before, he never even touched those cake mix boxes in the supermarket. Cris seemed to know what to do though, and so James just nodded. He didn't know anything better to do anyway.

Cris took James' hand and guided him to the kitchen. James stood there, watching his boyfriend, as he collected everything they needed. James wanted to help, but he felt like he'd get in the way more than he'd be useful. He had no idea where all the kitchen things were located, and he also didn't know what kind of ingredients they needed for this cake, so he felt like the best thing to do was to just wait and see, if Cris needed help he could just ask him.

Once everything was spread out on the counter, Cristiano looked at James and smiled. "Are you ready to begin? Or do you want an apron so that your clothes don't get dirty?" he asked.

James bit his lip and looked down. It wasn't like he was wearing his favourite clothes, he didn't mind if they got dirty or not, but his mom might get really pissed if they got really dirty, because she'd be the one to wash them. "Uh, a-apron is.. is fine.." James answered.

Cris nodded and walked away to get one. James waited, awkwardly, he didn't really dare to touch anything, he didn't really dare to do anything. He felt so incredibly nervous, it was almost as if this was his last chance to show Cristiano he was worth it, that they'd be a better match than Cris and that other guy, but deep down inside James knew that if that was the case, then he'd be screwed. Even if he wouldn't be as fucking nervous as he was right now, there was still that James just didn't know what to do when it came to dating, he didn't know what to do to convince Cristiano of anything. He didn't have the confidence to completely win Cris over.

Cristiano came back, wearing a pink apron while handing James a white one. When James gave him an odd stare he chuckled lightly. "My sister always uses this one, it'll be better if I ruin it" he explained jokingly, but James just nodded slightly in response. Cris bit his lip and sighed quietly, the awkwardness kicked in again and neither really knew what to say to break it.

James just tried to get the apron on as quickly as possible, but it was a lot harder than he thought it would be. To be honest he had never worn one, he had never seen his mom in one, he just knew what the things looked like and that people generally wore them while cooking, but that was pretty much all the knowledge he had about them.

He looked up when something pulled at the apron, and let go of it when he saw Cristiano was smiling softly at him. Cris put the apron the right way up, then put it over James' head and turned him around so he could tie the rope together on the back. He took this opportunity to then wrap his arms around James' waist and hug him from behind. James couldn't help but to lean into his embrace, he had missed this so much, and he was going to take full advantage of every little bit of affection he got. If this was going to be the last time he might as well enjoy it as much as he could.

Cris pecked James' neck and then turned him around towards the ingredients, all while still hugging him. "You wanna try and mix everything like this?" he asked, chuckling lightly at the idea.

James smiled and nodded, and the first thing he did was reach for the box so he could read the instructions. They first had to measure the appropriate amount of everything, then mix it all together, put it in the oven and then just wait until it was done, it all seemed simple enough.

Meanwhile, Cristiano was already grabbing some cups and bags, which wasn't easy as he had to manoeuvre around James. When he put the flour bag down in front of him, some came out of it, but luckily it either fell on the floor or James' apron. "Alright, can you tell me how much I need of everything?".

James started listing the ingredients, but stopped when Cris told him to. He watched as Cris' hands guided his to one of the ingredients, helped him pick it up and then put it down in front of him.

"Do you know how to measure it?" Cristiano then asked.

James snorted, sure he may not know a lot of things about cooking but even he knew how measuring stuff worked, he wasn't that stupid. He grabbed the bag, tilted it so that he could fill the measuring cup, and waited until there was enough. Except it came out a little faster and with a lot more than James expected to, and a cloud of white hit his face.

Cris hid behind his boyfriend to avoid getting dirty, and when the cloud had disappeared he looked at James and started to laugh. James' whole face was white, the blush of embarrassment on his face was barely visible. Cristiano kept laughing as he grabbed a towel, but before he cleaned James' face he quickly snapped a picture, his boyfriend just looked too adorable.

When Cris was done cleaning James' face, James was still slightly blushing. He stared at the table, and the mess he made, and bit his lip. He felt bad, for wasting ingredients, spilling it all over the floor and table, and for just standing there, not knowing what to do after he got all that stuff on his face and clothes.

Cris put his arm around James and then kissed his cheek. "Don't worry about the mess, we'll clean it up later" he smiled.

James smiled back weakly in response. His boyfriend's words didn't really help him feel better, he still felt like this was his once chance to proof to Cris that he was fun and interesting, that he was worthy of attention and affection, but how could he proof any of that if he didn't even believe it himself? All he did today was proof that he was clumsy and useless, awkward, silent, and a million other negative things. Cris was probably right in hanging out with that Gareth person more, James was sure he was way more interesting and fun.

Cristiano turned James around, making James face him, and then pulled him closer. He watched James' facial expressions, and when they didn't change he gave his boyfriend a small kiss on the nose. After he still barely got a response, he kissed James' forehead, then his nose, and then his lips, and ended up pressing his forehead against James'. "Talk to me sunshine".

James put his arms around Cris' neck, only because keeping his arms at his side felt a whole lot more awkward. He didn't look at Cris, avoided eye contact at all cost. He was scared, scared that Cristiano would say he was overreacting, or that he would say he did actually like Gareth more, he was just scared of opening up and putting himself in such a vulnerable position. He knew that talking was the best thing to do, that it really was the only way to fix this problem because Cristiano was just so fucking oblivious to what he was doing to James that James was sure he would never be able to figure it out on his own, but the fear of rejection had a tight grip on him.

So instead of talking, he just buried his face in Cris' neck and cried. His hands gripped Cristiano's shirt tight, as if letting go meant that Cris would disappear out of his life. The sobs started out quietly, but eventually he just couldn't keep it in anymore and he was full on crying, ugly noises included. He didn't even care how weird or stupid he sounded, he just needed to let it all out.

Cristiano hugged his boyfriend tighter once he noticed he was crying, this wasn't what he expected when he wanted James to talk, but it was better than nothing. He rubbed his hands over James' back and placed kisses on the skin he could reach without moving too much. He didn't say anything, knowing that James probably wouldn't be able to hear him anyway over the sound of his own cries, and so he just waited, and tried to comfort James as best as he could.

Eventually the crying died down, but James' grip on Cris didn't. He really needed the comfort, he rarely got any at home, and he didn't want to constantly bother his friends with it either. He also just didn't want to let go, he wanted to be close to Cris, at all times, and he used to be, or at least felt like it, until that stupid person had to ruin everything.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Cristiano whispered.

James shook his head slightly. "N-no.. not r-r-right now.. s-sor-ry" he mumbled.

"It's okay, don't be sorry, just, please, talk to me when something I do is bothering you okay?" Cris responded.

James bit his lip, maybe he should tell..? He nodded and kept quiet, he'd do it some other time, not right now, because he knew he'd be crying again as soon as he opened his mouth about it, and he felt like he did more than enough crying for one day already.

"Do you want to continue with the cake?" Cristiano asked.

James nodded again. He moved back and gave Cris a small smile, and in return Cris kissed him on his forehead.


End file.
